First Independent Mena Newspaper
The rising price of basic foods is worsening South Africa’s food security crisis which could increase social instability and spark a repeat of the devastating July 2021 unrest that spiraled out of control. Meanwhile, in Uganda, people in the eastern city of Jinja have taken to the streets protesting the rapidly rising cost of living. […]
The World Bank has released $100 million for the World Food Program to tackle “deep food insecurity” for 2 million people in Sudan. The Washington-based institution in a statement said the funds will help provide an “emergency safety net” amid worsening hunger in the northeast African nation “caused by a poor harvest and rising international […]
Morocco’s growth will be limited to 1.3% only in 2022, down from 7.9% last year, due to external shocks and drought, Morocco’s statistics agency HCP said. While highlighting the uncertainties surrounding the global economic outlook, the agency expected Morocco’s economic growth to recover to 3.4% next year on the back of a higher agricultural […]
Algerians woke up to renewed queues on cooking oil and bread in 2022, two commodities that joined a list of long essential goods whose prices spiked under the impact of high inflation and import cuts. The queues indicate shortages coupled with a high inflation of basic products under the impact of a state policy to […]
Algeria’s long queues seem to be there to stay fueling the wrath of a people that has suffered in recent days from a liquidity crisis, inflation as well as shortages of cooking oil and milk among other vital goods. In Algiers, which is ironically better-off compared to hard-to- reach regions, residents had to spend four […]
The Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) explained the raising of its key interest rate by “past and recent wage increases that are likely to maintain a price-wage spiral.” This spiral is very detrimental to the economy and accentuates macro-economic imbalances because of the impact on the consumption of imported products, the BCT said, according to […]
Tunisia’s economic indicators are “frightening” as the country is unable to defend its currency “even if it wanted to,” and must instead focus on narrowing its trade deficit to revive the economy, Central Bank Governor Marouane El Abassi said. The statement reflects the depth of the country’s economic and financial crisis after the Central Bank […]
Morocco’s macroeconomic situation continues to improve. After declining to 2.4 pc in 2014, growth is expected to reach 4.7 pc in 2015 thanks to a good agricultural season and improvements in construction activity, said the International monetary fund (IMF). However, non-agricultural growth remains sluggish, including in sectors related to tourism, which are affected by geopolitical […]
Tunisia’s central bank has applauded the “positive development in the political process” after the successful parliamentary and presidential elections but signaled that the results are yet to have a strong impact on the economy for now as the beginning of the year was “characterized by negative economic indicators” amongst which are the industry and tourism […]
The Egyptian pound weakened to a new record low against the US dollar on Thursday, extending its losses to 6.4 percent since the central bank introduced a new system of foreign currency auctions to curb a decline in foreign reserves. This came hours after Qatar announced that it is willing to pump in more money […]