Latest Economy of Africa Stories
By Andrew Downie Luciano Alves planted beans, corn and grain on about 3,000 hectares of his farm in southern Brazil last year. This year, he is planting 3,500 hectares. And he credits President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva with the increase. "The government is helping us finance the purchase of new machinery," Alves said. "They reduced the interest rates we pay and have given us more time to pay off the loans. It's vital." Rising food prices mean that many farmers around the world are reaping...
By Morgan, Matthew The prices that Africa's commodities fetch in the world market have never been higher. Ironically, production problems, for example power shortages in South Africa, have served to raise prices even further. The question is, how can Africa best employ this commodity windfall? Report by Matthew Morgan Wherever one looks in Africa there is increasing prosperity from commodity prices - and the best may be yet to come. The benchmark commodities index - the Jefferies- Reuters...
Text of report in English by opposition Sudanese newspaper Khartoum Monitor website on 24 August This has become an expensive commencement since some months ago the rise of prices on food commodities. Most of the prices have increased unnecessarily making some people unable to afford to buy even a single meal. Some years ago when the prices of any food item increased, the citizens in Khartoum city went on strike demanding their rights to know why there is an increment in the prices for food...
By Stevenson Jacobs Associated Press NEW YORK -- As prices for crude oil and other commodities ease, consumers have gotten a small dose of relief at the gas pump. But don't expect less pain at the grocery counter. Food inflation is here to stay -- and will probably get worse for some things. That's because retail prices for cereal, eggs, cheese and meat generally lag by several months or longer world prices for wheat, corn and soybeans -- the raw ingredients of so much of our food. Some...
NEW YORK - As prices for crude oil and other commodities ease, consumers have gotten a small dose of relief at the gas pump. But don't expect less pain at the grocery counter. Food inflation is here to stay - and will probably get worse for some things. That's because retail prices for cereal, eggs, cheese and meat generally lag by several months or longer behind world prices for wheat, corn and soybeans - the raw ingredients of so much of our food. Some food items might come down...
By The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) - As prices for crude oil and other commodities ease, Americans have gotten a small dose of relief at the gas pump. But don't expect less pain at the grocery counter. Food inflation is to stay - and will probably get worse for some things. That's because retail prices for cereal, eggs, cheese and meat generally lag by several months or longer world prices for wheat, corn and soybeans - the raw ingredients of so much of our food. Some food items might...
By Jennifer Toomer-Cook Deseret News Wasatch Front grocery prices and the overall cost of living are up again -- this time twice as high as the national increase, which was the second-highest monthly increase in 26 years, according to the Wells Fargo Consumer Price Index issued Thursday in Salt Lake City. Local grocery prices rose 2.3 percent last month, compared with a 1.2 percent national increase, based on nonseasonally adjusted numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the...
By Blas, Javier FOOD. MAN'S most-essential resource. And now a cause of war? For years, strategists, policy makers and the rest of the foreign- policy cadre worried the world's vanishing resources would be the cause of conflict. But of course, with energy assets concentrated in the Middle East and crude-oil prices rising from a historical average of $18 a barrel to more than $100 a barrel today, most scenarios centered on a war over oil. At their most imaginative, people have planned for...
WASHINGTON - After months of rising food prices, there might be some relief coming, with farmers on track to produce the second- largest corn crop and fourth-largest soybean crop in history. In its first estimates this year based on field visits and farmer surveys, the U.S. Department of Agriculture sharply raised its estimate Tuesday of corn production and said "nearly ideal" weather has helped Midwestern farmers recover from June's devastating floods. That recovery might eventually...
Text of report by Caribbean Media Corporation news agency website on 12 August Washington: The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Tuesday called on Latin America and Caribbean countries to strengthen social programmes to alleviate the impact of higher food prices on their populations. The IDB said that to support such initiatives it will provide a US500m dollars credit line for countries to improve agricultural productivity and expand cash transfer programmes. The Bank said it was...
