WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Banks in the Middle East and Central Asia have very limited exposure to last month’s banking turmoil in the United States and Europe, but financial pressures are adding to strains caused by high interest rates, volatile oil prices and years of double-digit inflation, a top IMF official said on Saturday. Jihad Azour,…
By Jorgelina do Rosario and Rodrigo Campos WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Zambia last week gave its bondholders a “concrete proposal” for the restructuring of some $3 billion in eurobonds, the ministry of finance and national planning said on Friday. “We continue to engage actively with our bondholders and proposals are being exchanged,” the ministry told…
By Joe Bavier WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Africa is struggling with the triple shock of rising debt burdens, an ongoing food crisis and climate change fallout and needs more help from international institutions and wealthy nations to cope, African finance ministers said on Saturday. Developing African economies were only beginning to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic…
By David Lawder and Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The International Monetary Fund’s steering committee on Friday said it would accelerate its discussions on quota reforms at the global lender with an eye to making “considerable progress” by its next meeting in October. Spanish Economy Minister Nadia Calvino, who chairs the International Monetary and Financial Committee…
By Joe Bavier WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Africa is facing a severe financing squeeze that, on the back of a series of unprecedented shocks, is disrupting economic growth and endangering its long-term development, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) top official for the region said. Sub-Saharan Africa was only beginning to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic fallout…
(This April 13 story has been corrected to fix the year of the last dollar bond issuance to 2022, not 2019) By Joe Bavier and Jorgelina do Rosario WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Angola’s next sovereign debt issuance will be an ESG bond of up to $1 billion, its finance minister told Reuters on Thursday, but she…
By Ahmad Ghaddar LONDON (Reuters) – European Union and G7 restrictions on Russian oil exports led to a global shift in oil flows, with Asian refiners soaking up discounted Russian crude, in part explaining the recent OPEC+ decision to curtail output further, the West’s energy watchdog said on Friday. With the arrival of over three…
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Eva Kaili, the former European Parliament vice president accused of accepting bribes in one of the biggest scandals to hit European Union institutions, was released from custody to house arrest on Friday. The 44-year-old Greek Socialist was driven in a black Mercedes with her lawyer from Haren prison in northern Brussels to…
By Libby George and Marc Jones LONDON (Reuters) – The latest bid by the world’s leading institutions and creditors to speed up debt restructurings and get bankrupt countries back on their feet has been greeted by a mix of cautious optimism and weary scepticism by veteran crisis watchers. Standoffs between major Western-backed lenders like the…
(This April 13 story has been corrected to change IMF loan approval to May from June in the headline and first paragraph) ACCRA (Reuters) – Ghana expects the International Monetary Fund’s board to approve a $3 billion loan in May, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said in a presentation on Thursday. The embattled West African country…
