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Greece deal slashes contagion risk -UniCredit CEO

Eurozone finance ministers approved a 30 billion euro emergency aid plan for debt-plagued Greece on April 11. Together with at least 10 billion euros expected from the IMF in the first year, it could add up to the biggest multilateral financial rescue ever attempted. “This has been a very important intervention,” Alessandro Profumo, the head…

Kenya Treasury says no borrowing for extra $543m

“Borrowing for this year is even closed. There will be no more borrowing,” Geoffrey Mwau, economic secretary at the Finance Ministry, told reporters. Treasury wants an additional 27.62 billion shillings for recurrent expenditure and another 14.39 billion shillings for development programmes. The budget factored in domestic borrowing of 109.5 billion shillings but the government increased…

Gulf values to catch up with emerging markets

Though foreign investors have slowly started coming back to the region, there still exists a 40-50 percent discount between the Middle East markets and that of the emerging economies, mainly the BRIC nations, said Zin Bekkali. “BRIC is still beautiful, the fundamentals are similar to the region but it has got expensive now. So that…

China state firms hand in plans to exit property sector

China’s agency overseeing big state-owned businesses has received plans from 78 state companies spelling out how they intend to sell out of the nation’s heady property market, according to sources. The China Securities Journal also reported that the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) was compiling a general plan to achieve the divestment, intended…

World Bank set to approve S Africa utility loan

The World Bank is set to approve a controversial $3.75bn loan to help South African state utility Eskom develop a coal-fired power plant despite objections from the US and environmental groups. Eskom has argued it has no immediate alternative but to develop the 4,800-megawatt Medupi coal-fired plant in the northern Limpopo region to ease chronic…

World Bank lending hits record $100bn

The World Bank stepped up lending in July 2008 at the request of member countries as demand from developing countries increased in the face of a worsening world recession and sharp drop in global trade. The bulk of the lending since the onset of the crisis in 2008, about $60.3bn, was to middle-income countries, which…

Southeast Asia could grow 5.6% this year – ASEAN

Southeast Asian economies will grow up to 5.6 percent this year but the expansion could be jeopardised if economic stimulus is withdrawn too early, according to a report by a regional body. Nevertheless, the governments of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) need to design an orderly exit strategy to show that they…