North Africa’s Economy
Egyptians expect more hardship as Cairo gets $3 billion loan from IMF. Currency value plunges 17%
Egypt has clinched a $3 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund conditioned on a currency depreciation and state subsidy cuts, the government said Thursday. The Egyptian pound shed 17 percent of its value against the dollar after the staff agreement was...
French cement giant Lafarge accused of supporting “terror groups”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he warned France about the cement company Lafarge's ties to terror groups in northern Syria. "When I explained how the cement giant called Lafarge supported terrorist organisations in northern Syria... the French did...
Tunisian bakers strike over unpaid subsidies
Thousands of Tunisian bakers staged a strike Wednesday to demand that the state pay up overdue subsidies, but suspended the action in the evening after reaching a deal with the government. The national bakery owners' union said some 3,200 of their businesses had...
Algeria-France looking to elevate their economic ties
The Algerian and French prime ministers on Monday hailed a "new dynamic" as they launched a joint economic forum during a visit to Algiers by France's Elisabeth Borne. Borne's two-day trip to the former French colony and major gas exporter comes just weeks after...
Energy: Algeria set to increase prices of natural gas delivered to Spain
Algerian state energy firm Sonatrach has agreed with Spanish buyer Naturgy to revise prices on gas deliveries through a key undersea pipeline, it said Thursday, as Europe gears up for a winter energy crunch. "Sonatrach and its partner Naturgy have agreed to revise the...
Libya-Turkey undersea gas deal angers European nations
Libya's Tripoli-based prime minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah has defended a deal signed earlier this week with Turkey over oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean, which angered European nations. The memorandum of understanding, three years after a controversial...
Morocco takes new steps to bring to market cannabis for medicinal use
The Morocco government issued for the first time on October 4, 2022, 10 permits to legally roll out the cannabis use for medicinal purposes. A regulatory agency ANRAC was set up to issue such permits and monitor the sector’s activities, from cultivation and processing...
Libya’s eastern government signs oil and gas exploration deal with Turkey, rival government rejects it
Turkey's foreign minister signed a deal in Libya's capital Monday allowing for oil and gas exploration in Libya's Mediterranean waters, three years after a maritime border deal that angered European nations. "We've signed a memorandum of understanding on exploration...
Sahel: Niger suspends oil deliveries to Mali after Bamako launched verbal attack on Niger’s president
Niger has suspended the shipping of oil products through the Sahel nation to neighbouring Mali for "security reasons" in the face of a jihadist insurgency, customs sources told AFP Tuesday. An internal customs service note dated September 21 declared "the suspension...
Economy: Morocco’s central bank ups interest rates to slowdown surge in inflation
Morocco's central bank on Tuesday raised interest rates by 50 basis points to 2.0 percent in an effort to slow down a surge in inflation. The Bank Al-Magrib (BAM), after a board meeting, said the economy remains "deeply marked by the aftermath of the (coronavirus)...