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Egypt economic growth forecasts lowered as Gaza crisis flares: Reuters poll

By Patrick Werr CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian economic growth will be slower than previously expected as its pound weakens, inflation cuts into purchasing power and fallout from the Gaza crisis eats into the country’s main sources of foreign currency, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday. Revenue from the Suez Canal fell 40% in early January …

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Stocks gain slightly, dollar rises against yen after BoJ decision

By Sinéad Carew and Amanda Cooper NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) -MSCI’S global equities index gained very slightly as investors digested a mixed crop of earnings reports and waited for key economic releases due later in the week while the yen fell after the Bank of Japan left monetary policy unchanged. While the dollar index climbed to …

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Oil prices settle down slightly on more supply in US and abroad

By Laila Kearney NEW YORK (Reuters) -Oil prices settled lower on Tuesday as traders focused on rebounding crude output in parts of the U.S., along with rising supply in Libya and Norway, rather than risks to supply posed by conflict in Europe and the Middle East. Brent crude settled at $79.55 a barrel, losing 51 …

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US dollar hits six-week high; yen falls in wake of BOJ decision

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) -The dollar climbed to six-week peaks against a basket of currencies on Tuesday, as investors resumed buying the greenback after a brief respite, on continued expectations the Federal Reserve would be in no rush to cut interest rates given a still stable U.S. economy. The dollar index rose to …

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Blinken pledges $45 million to boost coastal West Africa security

ABIDJAN (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday pledged $45 million in additional financing to help fight conflict and bring stability to coastal West Africa, where insecurity linked to jihadist insurgencies has increased in recent years. Blinken is on the second stop of a four-nation tour of Africa taking him to Cape …

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World Bank approves $300 million in funding for Ghana

(Reuters) – The World Bank has approved $300 million in funding to help Ghana’s economic recovery, it said in a statement on Tuesday. The decision comes after the West African country reached a deal to restructure $5.4 billion of loans with its official creditors, a milestone in Ghana’s quest for debt relief as it charts …

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Sierra Leone’s capital under threat from deforestation, UN report says

By Umaru Fofana FREETOWN (Reuters) – A national park that provides clean water to Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown is critically under threat due to human activities such as land grabbing, charcoal burning, quarrying and marijuana cultivation, a U.N. report said on Tuesday. The park has lost about 26% of its 18,000 hectares (180 square kilometres) …

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Putin, Sisi mark new phase of Egypt’s Russian-built nuclear plant

CAIRO/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Tuesday inaugurated the construction of a new unit at Egypt’s Dabaa nuclear power plant via video link, as Moscow moves ahead with its global nuclear ambitions. The power plant is being built by the Russian state corporation Rosatom at a reported cost …

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Uganda in talks with UAE investment firm over planned oil refinery

By Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA (Reuters) -Uganda is negotiating with an investment company led by a member of Dubai’s royal family to develop a planned $4 billion refinery for some of its crude oil, its energy minister said on Tuesday. Uganda in July last year terminated negotiations with a consortium that included a unit of U.S. …

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Cryptoverse: Will bitcoin behave better on Wall Street?

By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Medha Singh (Reuters) – Bitcoin celebrated its 15th birthday this month by bursting onto Wall Street with an ebullient bang. Now the adolescent asset may have to grow up fast. Investors have embraced 11 U.S. exchange traded funds (ETFs), tracking bitcoin’s spot price, that began trading on Jan. 11 after …

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