THE LOCAL

Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a US$ 4.2 billion dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 km from its border with Sudan, is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for its population plus some excess it can sell to neighbouring countries. Dubbed the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, it will be Africa's biggest dam and will depend on water from the 6,700-km Nile River, the world's longest river. But Ethiopia must first resolve matters with Egypt, which, along with Sudan, claims the rights to the river following a 1929 agreement. That agreement excluded other countries along the Nile River trajectory, such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Egypt fears that the dam will suck up water flows to the country and severely affect its domestic consumption. About 86% of the Nile River's water actually originates from Ethiopia, a point the country is underscoring to press its case. In addition, it says that independent experts believe...

Two years ago when we first compiled the list of the highest interest rates in the world, the world was stuck in a state of low or negative rates.  The situation today is quite different with the US’ Fed hiking and Europe beginning to end the reign of free money. Emerging market economies are being forced to make decisions on whether to raise interest rates to keep up with the US, and choosing between higher growth or higher capital outflows. So where are the highest interest rates in the world in 2017? Using data from TradingEconomics, we looked at the highest interest rates in the world using central bank reference rates for ease of comparison. This time we looked at every countries in the world, not just emerging and frontier markets. The Six Countries With The Highest Interest Rates Worldwide: Similar to two years ago, there are still 6 countries with bank policy rates above 20%! The composition of countries has changed though: Argentina (24.75%) Ghana (...