Market Africa Mid-East

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Ghana's economy benefits from increasing stability.
In the May 2007 edition of its African Economic Outlook (AEO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says the following about Ghana: "The economy seems to be on the cusp o . . .

Walk-in clinics.
Two contemporary retailing ideas are making healthcare distribution in parts of Africa more effective. Both programs are in the development stage, and both are showing signs of success. The first . . .

Tanzania stable and making progress.(Brief article)
Two recent Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) reports provide a fascinating look at one of Africa's more puzzling markets--puzzling in the sense that the country is richly endowed with natural reso . . .

Namibia portrayed as an underachiever.(Brief article)
In a wide ranging, August 10, 2007 interview in The Namibian (Windhoek), Namibia's biggest daily newspaper, a member of Namibia's parliament took note of the disappointing performance of the country . . .

UAE is stable and rich.(United Arab Emirates)(Brief article)
An October 2007, United Arab Emirates (UAE) Country Risk Assessment, published by the Australian Government's Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC) (Sydney), was generally approving of the . . .

Consumer debt up sharply in SA.
In an August 14, 2007 review of consumer indebtedness in South Africa, the market research firm Euromonitor (London) said that the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) was increasingly concerned about . . .

Nigeria gains but structural mire persists.
Growth in sub-Saharan Africa's second largest economy [after South Africa] so far this year is far below the government's target of 10 percent," says an October 5, 2007 Reuters report filed from Lag . . .

Morocco stable following elections.
The political situation in Morocco garnered a fair amount of attention as far back as January 2007 when Foreign Policy (Washington) listed the country's (then) upcoming September 2007 elections as w . . .

Namibia worries about inflation.
Namibia's high per capita income in relation to other African countries (see chart below) reflects the success of its extractive industries as opposed to the strength of its consumer base. In fact, . . .

Botswana faces an array of problems.
One of the problems that developing countries face is a balancing act involving natural resources and the country's industry and service sectors. The dilemma comes down to being able to quickly deve . . .

A serious setback in the DRC.(Democratic Republic of the Congo )
At the end of April 2007, Wesgro, a trade development agency in South Africa, issued a report on the results of a visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The advice to members was succi . . .

Nigerian auto sales steady.
The market research publisher Business Monitor International (BMI) released a report on the Nigerian automotive sector on May 10, 2007. Among the report's conclusions were the fact that automotive . . .

Food crisis in Lesotho.
The tiny Kingdom of Lesotho--an enclave in Southern Africa completely surrounded by South Africa--like many countries in the region is experiencing extreme drought. The drought has seriously threate . . .

Jordan should energize its reform process.
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace through the Carnegie Middle East Center published a report in July 2007 titled: "Rethinking Economic Reform in Jordan." According to the report, Jordan . . .

Milk.
Southern Africa is in the midst of a serious milk supply shortfall. The drought of the past few years has caused production problems, which are mainly to blame for the shortages. According to the . . .

Political chaos undermines Lebanon's economic future.
The news out of Lebanon--both economically and politically--is grim. Much of the commentary has to do with the convoluted internal power struggle tinged with the assertion of influence by Lebanon's . . .

Tunisia's stability may be illusory.
Tunisia maintains the admiration and goodwill of international financial agencies owing to its favorable macroeconomic record over the past several years. Typical of comments supporting Tunisia's . . .

Egypt's reforms are at a critical stage.
Egypt is a developing market economy that can-and should-be doing better, in spite of the fact that its macroeconomic statistics in recent years make it look like Egypt is doing very well indeed. . . .

Currency redenomination in Ghana.
Consumers and businesses alike in Ghana are struggling with a change in the denomination of country's currency-the cedi, symbol GHC-scheduled to take effect in July 2007. Since January 2007, the Ban . . .

Ethiopia needs increased productivity.(World Bank report )(Brief article)
On May 7, 2007, the World Bank presented its most recent review of the Ethiopian economy to a large group of VIPs in Addis Ababa. The group consisted of various stakeholders, representatives of don . . .

No improvement in Zimbabwe's dire straits.(Brief article)
The best the Zimbabwe government seems to be able to do is to "tinker" with issues that have no direct bearing on the country's desperate situation. The rate of inflation reached 2,200 percent in Ma . . .

Rapid growth forecast for Israel.(Brief article)
The Bank of Israel (BOI) says that the country's economy is "back to rapid growth," following an annualized GDP expansion of 7.3 percent during the final quarter of 2006. In its report, titled, "Rec . . .

Mobile phones and healthcare in Africa.
Increasingly, mobile phones are being seen as a supportive tool for distributing higher quality healthcare in Africa. Data collection, for example, can be used to check the spread of diseases. In . . .

Slowing South Africa retail sales ease inflation worries.
In June 2006, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) was confronted by a consumer spending surge that threatened to destabilize the SARB's sound management of the country's inflation. Between June 20 . . .

Ethiopia's market reforms stall.(Country overview)
Ethiopia is, by far, the biggest country in East Africa in terms of population, and the biggest, but not by a wide margin, in land area. Since the mid-1990s the country has pursued a reform agenda w . . .

Stirrings in Niger.(Country overview)
News of some remarkable developments has been coming out of Niger in recent weeks. On March 13, 2007, the Senegal based African news service Panapress (Dakar) distributed a story on its wires with t . . .

South African retailers are confident.
The decision to leave the repo rate (South Africa's key interest rate) unchanged at 9.0 percent itself should have been enough to unhinge retail confidence. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB), th . . .

Israel is looking toward a better 2007.(Brief article)
The Bank of Israel (BOI), Israel's central bank, revised its growth for 2007 upward from its previous forecast of 4.6 percent to 5.1 percent. The GDP forecast change represents a rise of 0.5 percent . . .

Kenya worker abuse detailed.(Kenya Human Rights Commission)(Brief article)
The Inter Press Service (IPS) (Rome) has distributed a February 19, 2007 review of a controversial book published by the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) saying that Kenya's five export processi . . .

Ghana's informal sector is not productive.(Brief article)
Part of Ghana's challenge to become a genuine market economy is coming to terms with its large "informal sector." According to the Public Agenda (Accra), Ghana's informal sector, economically active . . .

Information Technology (IT).(Kigali Institute of Science and Technology )
Rwanda, of all places, is routinely expressing ambitions to become the, "Silicon Valley of East-Central Africa." According to a posting on the World Resources Institute's Next Billion website on Jan . . .

Kuwait's consumers experiencing more stability.
Almost everything about Kuwait and its economy has to do with oil. And because of 2006 oil price increases, Kuwait's economy is almost universally reported to be doing well. One of the improving f . . .

Uganda grows in spite of problems.
Uganda is in the midst of dealing with several serious problems. Both the weather and the country's political situation are unstable. In terms of the weather, a severe drought is likely to persist . . .

Will Madagascar achieve its ambitions?(Poverty Reduction Strategy)
On February 13, 2007, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published its "Poverty Reduction Strategy" for Madagascar. The document, interestingly, is basically a reprint of the "Madagascar Action . . .

Meagre gains on Botswana poverty.
Botswana's per capita income is forecast to grow to us$12,918 in 2007, according to a September 2006 assessment by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This makes Botswana an "upper middle income . . .

Egyptian consumers still confident.
On February 6, 2007, several media outlets reported second half 2006 results of the twice annual MasterIndex of consumer confidence surveying selected markets. Among the countries polled was Egypt w . . .

Oil price retreat dampens UAE growth.
Several media outlets reported on an HSBC Group (London) report titled, "Gulf Economic Forecast," released January 18, 2007, which said that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was on track to grow 6.2 p . . .

Kenya GDP may slow as elections approach.
Kenya holds presidential elections in December 2007, and according to a Pan-Africa News Agency (Panapress) story-via Business in Africa (Rivonia SA) February 6, 2007-the political atmosphere is goin . . .

Cell phone update.
Cell phone unit sales are expected to reach 1-billion units by 2009, according to the research firm Gartner, Inc. (Stamford, CT USA). And nowhere is the social impact of mobile phones felt more stro . . .

Nigeria's economic ambitions burn fiercely.
'Bold' is a word one sees frequently when reading about progress in the Nigerian economy. The references are mostly to the government's plans to attack a wide variety of problems the country faces. . . .

South Africa has a problem with inflation.
One battle the South African Reserve Bank does not want to fight at the beginning of 2007 is a fight over inflation. But that is the fight it faces. And it is a losing battle. South Africa's con . . .

Angola has oil growth-but not much else.
Angola is a very poor country and after 27 years of a civil war that ended in February 2002, many of its social institutions and societal infrastructure have collapsed. Inflation has raged for a num . . .

Strong Mozambique macro statistics.
According to a December 18, 2006 press release from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) a review of the country's economic progress in connection with IMF aid showed, "strong economic growth, mode . . .

Namibia struggles with inflation.
Consumers in Namibia begin 2007 with declining disposable income and high personal debt. The income drain is attributable to two sources. The first draining source, and the most obvious, is inflatio . . .

Tunisia's consumers are still repressed.(Brief article)
Back in September 2006, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released its "Global Competitiveness Report" part of which is WEF's widely publicized ranking by competitiveness of the world's economies. In t . . .

Morocco reforms provide opportunities.(Brief article)
Because of its large pool of educated French-speaking workers, Morocco sees a way to increase high quality job opportunities for part of its sizeable consumer base. The strategy includes offering o . . .

An African car sales brief.
According to a December 2006 posting at Automotoportal a website featuring automotive news, "The one universal truth within the African continent, every best selling car is a compact or smaller." . . .

Egypt's economic reforms begin to take effect.
Media outlets covering Egypt lately have been nearly unanimous in reporting economic progress. Notably, the international investment community appears to be expressing increasing confidence in the c . . .

Nigeria registers incremental progress.
Following are two possibly hopeful recent news items coming out of Nigeria. Both can contribute materially to consumer activity in the country. The first comes from a story in The Daily Independen . . .

Trouble is barely masked by Algeria's oil.
Algeria is a prime example of one of those markets where the macroeconomic statistics appear promising but the reality for its consumers is quite different. The country, of course, is a major oil . . .