tagged w/ Global Finances
-
African stock markets are feeling the heat of the world financial crises created in the United States. At the Nairobi Stock Exchange of Kenya (NSE), the share price fell to a new historical low of Sh4.30 on Tuesday.
Strong indications have emerged that the Council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) may have made headway in its efforts to bail out the nation's stock from its lingering slide. By the end of last week, foreign investors had reduced their South African equity holdings by R24bn this year, compared to net purchases of almost R60bn over the same period last year.
All these and recent trends show that finally, the global financial crises has begun hitting African continent. On Monday, Prime Minister Raila Odinga joined world leaders in warning that the financial crisis on Wall Street would inflict significant damage on African economies, including Kenya's.
Speaking on the sidelines of an international development conference in France, Odinga told Reuters that the turmoil in world markets “will impact very negatively on the Kenyan economy in the short and medium term.”
"They say that when America sneezes, Europe catches a cold, Asia develops pneumonia and Africa's tuberculosis gets worse. This is what we are beginning to see,” Odinga added.
World Bank and United Nations officials also spoke about Africa's prospects for continued economic growth. Panic on Wall Street and in other financial centres could cause Western investors to reduce their stakes in African businesses, Shanta Devarajan, the World Bank's top economist for Africa, said in Washington on Monday.
“Now there is a risk that if there is a really difficult financial crisis in the United States and Europe and risk aversion rises, it is possible these capital flows which have fuelled growth in Africa will fall,” Devarajan said.
In the case of Kenya, the NSE 20 share index, a key performance indicator, has over the past 12 months dropped by about 1,000 points, washing away about a quarter in returns. That means an investor who bought shares on all the 20 counters included on the NSE 20 index in October 2007 has by now lost a quarter of his investment.African stock markets are feeling the heat of the world financial crises created in... more
-
-
TOKYO -- Asian stock markets fell Monday amid investors skepticism that the deal reached in Washington over a $700 billion bank bailout would quickly resolve the bad debt crisis.
Adding to concerns of further global financial contagion was news Sunday that Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg pledged more than euro11 billion ($16 billion) to Dutch-Belgian bank and insurance giant Fortis NV to keep it from insolvency.
"There's an increasing realization that the cleanup and the mending of all that's gone wrong is going to take an extended period to work through, and we're going to see an extended recovery period," said Jamie Spiteri, senior dealer at Shaw Stockbroking in Sydney.
TOKYO -- Asian stock markets fell Monday amid investors skepticism that the deal... more
-
-
Government has throughout U.S. history stepped in, there are some lessons
The stock market plummets, investors pull out money and loans dry up, triggering global financial turmoil. Enter the government, buying up bad mortgages and other problem assets.
This scenario from the 1930s sounds eerily current, in part because the Bush administration is taking pages from the playbooks Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt used to unfreeze credit and keep Americans from losing their homes three-quarters of a century ago.
From the Great Depression to the Chrysler bailout in 1979 to the savings and loan crisis that cost taxpayers $125 billion in the 1990s, the current administration has many government interventions from which to learn. If the history of previous bailouts holds any single lesson, however, it's that the outcomes are unpredictable and the problems will take years to work out.
Government has throughout U.S. history stepped in, there are some lessons
The stock... more
-
