By Kopano Gumbi PRETORIA (Reuters) – South Africa’s unemployment rate rose in the first quarter after declining for four consecutive quarters last year, data showed on Tuesday, as the country reeled from record power cuts. Unemployment rose to 32.9% in the first three months of 2023 from 32.7% in the final quarter of last year,…
LONDON (Reuters) – Investors lifted equity allocations to a 5-month high but cash levels also increased to 5.6%, even as they remained worried about a possible credit crunch and inflation staying elevated, a Bank of America survey showed on Tuesday. The survey of 289 fund managers with a total of $753 billion in assets showed…
By Marine Strauss BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Providing equitable access to appropriate housing in slums and other informal settlements could massively increase economic growth and boost life expectancy, a report to be published on Tuesday by home-building charity Habitat for Humanity shows. Proper housing could increase economic growth by up to 10.5%, while life expectancy could…
By Nyasha Chingono HARARE (Reuters) – The African Development Bank (AFDB) has developed financial instruments to “fast track and front load” $3.5 billion in compensation to white farmers whose land was taken from them by Zimbabwe’s government, the bank’s president said on Monday. Akinwumi Adesina’s announcement, which did not include details of the proposed instruments,…
By Chijioke Ohuocha ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria’s annual inflation rose to 22.22% in April from 22.04% the previous month, as the price of food continued to rise, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. Inflation has remained elevated in Africa’s biggest economy, eroding savings and incomes, and prompting the central bank to hike interest…
By Tetsushi Kajimoto TOKYO (Reuters) – The weekend gathering of finance chiefs from the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies did not single out China as a threat in their communique, but left signs the world’s second-largest economy will loom large at this week’s summit in Hiroshima. Efforts to grapple with China’s growing global presence…
KHARTOUM (Reuters) -Shelling and air strikes pounded parts of Sudan’s capital on Sunday with little sign that warring military factions were ready to back down in a month-long conflict that has killed hundreds despite ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia. Khartoum and the adjoining cities of Bahri and Omdurman across the Nile’s two branches have been…
By Olena Harmash and Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey KYIV/KOSTIANTYNIVKA, Ukraine (Reuters) -Moscow acknowledged on Friday that its forces had fallen back north of Ukraine’s battlefield city of Bakhmut after a new Ukrainian offensive, in a retreat that the head of Russia’s Wagner private army called a rout. The setback for Russia, which follows similar reports of Ukrainian…
By Crispin Kyala BUSHUSHU, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) – With shovels, sticks and bare hands, Red Cross volunteers struggled to clear caked mud from around a body half buried in a landslide in Bushushu village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. A week after torrential rains triggered deadly floods, the workers said they were…
SHAKAHOLA FOREST, Kenya (Reuters) -Kenyan investigators unearthed 29 more bodies on Friday in a continuing search for victims of a doomsday cult in the country’s southeast. The death toll now stands at 179. Authorities this week have searched for remains in shallow graves scattered throughout the Shakahola forest and for any survivors as hundreds of…
