Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos appointed Manuel Vicente as Minister for Economic Coordination on January 30, in a move which we believe gives some clarity over the country’s future leadership. In his new post, Vicente, the former CEO of state-owned oil giant Sonangol, is likely to have a wide range of policy-making powers and… [Read more]

Regional Oil and Gas production has bounced back strongly over the last quarter in line with the rapid return of Libyan volumes. We expect full pre-war Libyan output to resume by the second half of 2012. Production is likely to continue growing as high oil prices drive further exploration and production across Africa. The key… [Read more]

Late and insufficient rains in parts of Southern Africa at the end of 2011 have raised concerns that the region could face a period of drought, lean harvests and food shortages after several years of bumper crops. Although we do not believe that a crisis is imminent, we assess the risks posed by poor rains… [Read more]

Over the coming week, my colleagues and I will be publishing our global and regional economic outlooks for 2012 on Business Monitor Online. The good news is that we have just published our Africa Outlook today. In this article, we identify and discuss five themes for the next 12 months: Weak external demand, due to… [Read more]

The outbreak of large-scale anti-government protests across Egypt in late November underscores the volatility inherent in the country’s now 10-month old democratic transition. In our blogpost of February 14, we cautioned that former president Hosni Muabrak’s resignation represented only the end of the beginning of the transition. We also warned that any foot-dragging by the… [Read more]

Business Monitor International (BMI) has just launched a Global Mines Database. The new interactive database contains details of existing mines and planned projects in 60 of the countries covered in BMI’s Mining Service. The Global Mines Database is an interactive tool, allowing users to search for mines and mining projects by country, commodity, and/or company…. [Read more]

China’s growing role in Africa has become something of a cliché by now, yet my colleagues and I decided to re-examine this megatrend in Business Monitor Online and in our weekly Emerging Markets Monitor magazine. Overall, China’s rise presents both opportunities and risks for Africa. Although trade statistics suggest the relationship is dominated by China’s… [Read more]