Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – President Cyril Ramaphosa is this week expected to unveil a massive stimulus package to help turn South Africa’s COVID-19 battered economy around. He will present the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan during a special joint address to Parliament on Thursday. His 48-page draft document, which is being [...] Full text...

Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - Financial services provider, Stanbic Bank Botswana has implored the local business community to aggressively innovate against the unravelling impacts of COVID-19 pandemic. Addressing the entrepreneurs on Thursday, the Bank's Head of Personal and Business Banking, Chiko Manokore challenged the businesses to be more vigilant. “Though it is difficult [...] Full text...

Paris, France (PANA) - The French minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, has said that France supports the efforts of the European Commission for the conclusion, as soon as possible, of an ambitious agreement between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. "France supports [...] Full text...

Tunis, Tunisia (PANA)  -  The Tunisian Labour Party has strongly criticized the continuation of the country’s debt policy, describing it as ‘barking behind more debts’. This followed the announcement by the Tunisian government of its decision to obtain a loan of 750 million dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Labour [...] Full text...

Tunis Tunisia (PANA) - For the first time in month, Tunisia's net assets in foreign currencies exceeded 20 billion Tunisian dinars allowing the country to have 115 days of imports, said the Tunisian Central Bank (BCT) on its website. During the same period last year, these figures amounted to around 13.5 [...] Full text...

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) - Countries meeting at the African Union (AU)’s 33rd assembly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday adopted a unified position on the recovery of illicit assets, a source close to Trust Africa, a pan-African independent foundation based in Dakar, Senegal, disclosed to PANA. The Common African Position on Asset [...] Full text...

Lomé, Togo (PANA) - Togo's economic recovery is strengthening, according to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff mission that visited Lomé from 4-17 December to conduct the sixth and last review of the programme supported by the Fund's Extended Credit Facility (ECF). "Economic growth accelerated from 4.9% in 2018 to 5.3% [...] Full text...

Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - Botswana's Acting Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Karabo Socraat Gare, has lauded the International Trade Centre for its dedication to the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country. Gare was speaking on Tuesday at the launch of Botswana SME Competitiveness Survey Report in [...] Full text...

Cotonou, Benin (PANA) - Benin is looking forward to further improving its macroeconomic indicators in 2020, according to the draft budget submitted by the government to the National Assembly for adoption. According to the Minister of State for Planning, Abdoulaye Bio Tchané: "For 2020, macroeconomic indicators will continue to improve" with [...] Full text...

Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - The resident representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Tunisia, Steve Utterwulghe, will Tuesday chair the inauguration of the first "rapid analysis laboratory" in Tunis, PANA learned on Monday from informed sources. More than 250 young people (girls and boys), senior Tunisian government officials, ambassadors, [...] Full text...

WB forecasts gloomy picture of Libya’s economy   Tripoli, Libya (PANA)  -  The World Bank Thursday predicted a  very “pessimistic” picture for the Libyan economy for the next two years, dropping from an estimated growth of 5.5 percent to a 0.6 percent. In its new report titled "The Perspectives of the Libyan Economy [...] Full text...

Tunis, Tunisia (PANA) - Tunisia recorded an economic growth of 1.1% in the first half of 2019 compared to 2.6% in the same period last year, showing the weight of the proliferation of unemployment and the rise in the rate of inflation, the Tunisian National Institute of Statistics has indicated. It [...] Full text...