Reuters Africa Business Archives - Page 692 of 921

Fitch upgrades Ghana’s long-term local-currency issuer default rating to ‘CCC’

22 Mar 2023 22 Mar 2023

ACCRA (Reuters) – Ratings agency Fitch on Wednesday upgraded Ghana’s long-term local-currency issuer default rating to ‘CCC’ from ‘restricted default’. Ghana suspended payments on most of its external debt last year, effectively defaulting, and still needs to negotiate a resolution with its private international bondholders and bilateral creditors. The West African country has already restructured …

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S.African insurer OUTsurance reports nearly three-fold jump in HY profit

22 Mar 2023 22 Mar 2023

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African short-term insurer OUTsurance Group reported on Wednesday an almost three-fold jump in half-year profit, helped by strong growth in premiums and favourable operating conditions. The company’s headline earnings per share, a profit measure, was 86.6 South African cents in the six months to Dec. 31, up from 35 cents a …

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South Africa Feb consumer inflation higher than forecast at 7.0% y/y

22 Mar 2023 22 Mar 2023

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa’s headline consumer inflation rose slightly higher than expected to 7.0% year on year in February from 6.9% in January, data from Statistics South Africa showed on Wednesday. On a month-on-month basis, consumer inflation was at 0.7% in February compared to -0.1% in the previous month. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted …

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S.African insurer OUTsurance reports almost 150% jump in interim profit

22 Mar 2023 22 Mar 2023

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African short-term insurer OUTsurance Group reported on Wednesday an almost 150% jump in half-year profit as it benefited from strong premium growth and favourable operating conditions. Its headline earnings per share, a profit measure, was at 86.6 South African cents in the year to Dec. 31, up from 35 cents posted …

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Oil rises 2% in retreat from 15-mth low as banking fears subside

21 Mar 2023 21 Mar 2023

By Arathy Somasekhar HOUSTON (Reuters) -Oil prices rose more than 2% on Tuesday, extending a retreat from a 15-month low hit the previous day, as the rescue of Credit Suisse allayed concerns of a banking crisis that would hurt economic growth and cut fuel demand. Measures to stabilise the banking sector, including a UBS takeover …

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Shares jump but investor fears about bank ‘whack-a-mole’ linger

21 Mar 2023 21 Mar 2023

By Koh Gui Qing NEW YORK (Reuters) -Global shares leapt on Tuesday after the rescue of Credit Suisse stemmed a rout in equities and whetted risk appetite, although financial system uncertainties limited buying as investors awaited the outcome of a Federal Reserve meeting. The Fed began a two-day meeting earlier on Tuesday and, after a …

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First Republic leads surge in bank stocks as Fed comes into focus

21 Mar 2023 21 Mar 2023

By David French, Nupur Anand and Lananh Nguyen (Reuters) – Shares of U.S. regional lenders including battered First Republic Bank surged on Tuesday as fears of a wider banking crisis abated and investors turned their focus to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s next move. The Fed’s relentless rate hikes to rein in inflation have been partly …

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Kenyan judge temporarily blocks mass layoff of Facebook moderators

21 Mar 2023 21 Mar 2023

NAIROBI (Reuters) -A Kenyan judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the mass redundancy of some 260 Facebook content moderators working for an outsourcing company contracted by the social media site’s parent company Meta, court documents show. Judge Matthews Nduma issued an interim injunction against Meta and the Kenya-based outsourcing firm Sama, preventing them from terminating the …

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Angola cuts main interest rate again to 17% after inflation dips

21 Mar 2023 21 Mar 2023

LUANDA (Reuters) – Angola’s central bank cut its main interest rate for a second time this year on Tuesday, lowering it by 100 basis points to 17% after inflation fell to a multi-year low. The Southern African country’s inflation rate eased in February to 11.54% year on year from 12.55% in January, continuing a downward …

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Analysis-Safe-havens and risk assets both rise as banking woes shift Fed expectations

21 Mar 2023 21 Mar 2023

By David Randall and Lewis Krauskopf NEW YORK (Reuters) – Worries over the banking crisis are boosting disparate assets, with traditional safe-havens such as gold, Treasuries and money markets seeing high demand along with more speculative instruments such as tech stocks and bitcoin. The unusual cross-currents come as the financial distress that started earlier this …

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