THE LOCAL

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has always had strong ties with Africa. Given that about 65% of all Arabs are also Africans, it is no surprise that there is a close relationship between the two. Yet these bonds were overwhelmingly with North Africa until relatively recently. The economic potential of the continent as a whole has now persuaded many Emirati firms to look south of the Sahara, while the UAE government is doing everything it can to support this investment. The Dubai Chamber of Commerce puts total non-oil trade between Africa and the UAE for 2016 at $24bn, up from $17.5bn in 2014 and $5.6bn in 2005, on the back of investment in agriculture and banking but above all infrastructure: in ports, aviation and telecoms. The UAE is Africa’s biggest trade partner in the Gulf. Egypt still attracts most Emirati investment and ties between the UAE and North Africa in general are particularly close because of a shared language, religion and culture. Agriculture ...

It’s the perfect match for modern day living: self-service cars, by the hour or day, accessible 24/7 and with parking, fuel and insurance costs included. This, a first for Morocco, is on offer in Casablanca from the startup Carmine. Now that self-service bikes have rolled into the country, cars are following suit and offer a much-wanted service in the economic capital, burdened with increasing, chaotic traffic. The firm was created in 2014, and tested the waters with a pilot project in July 2015. According to CEO and founder Mohamed Mrani Alaoui, this was, “A period during which we really reached maturity.” There was a lot to do: running trials on rates, defining parking spaces through a partnership with the city, personalising technology and getting to know client needs. “People thought the concept wouldn’t work in Morocco, to judge by the time it took us to go into commercial operation,” says Alaoui. “But that pilot period was about making the new service more...

When investing in foreign markets, it is important to consider currency risk, a topic we have covered many times before. We ensure that our Frontier Market Dashboard prominently displays both local currency and USD adjusted returns to underscore the difference that currency can make. However, how to calculate the USD-adjusted returns is not as simple as adding the stock and currency returns together. Calculating Currency’s Impact On Returns This is the formula: USD Currency Adjusted Return (%) = (1 + Return in Local Currency) x (1 + Return on Local Currency vs USD) – 1 Currency has a  multiplicative , rather than  additive , effect on returns. This is because it affects not only the initial amount invested, but also the subsequent profit/loss that is in local currency. This means that if a currency has appreciated during the holding time, the currency adjusted profit/loss will be larger than if you added the two returns together, and smaller if the currenc...

Britain’s economy is showing signs of coming through the worst of its 2017 slowdown, according to a Guardian analysis, as exporters benefit from an improving global economy and inflation remained steady. In the week after Chancellor Philip Hammond’s budget outlined the biggest growth downgrade for the UK since the Conservatives came to power in 2010,  How has the Brexit vote affected the UK economy? November verdict   Read more The country has kept on an even keel as exporters were bolstered by growth in global trade, while the improvement in the outlook for the rest of the world is helping to offset weakness at home. Households continue to feel the squeeze from inflation, prompted by the weak pound since the Brexit vote, but the rate at which prices rose in the UK stayed at 3% despite expectations of a further increase.  Still, questions remain over the UK’s future trading relationship with Europe, while Hammond’s budget re...

Prices at the pump dipped again in the last week, but a much-anticipated meeting of oil-producing countries Thursday could push prices higher heading into the New Year and beyond. Drivers in all 50 states saw the price of a gallon of unleaded drop last week, with the national average down about 3 cents to $2.50 by late Tuesday morning. Prices will to continue to fall for the next few weeks, experts say, as demand eases following the Thanksgiving travel period. ·          America's oil and gas output could soar 25% by 2025 ·          Gas prices rise another 3 cents on the week ·          BP CEO: Oil prices won't spike much higher ·          Political turmoil, late-season demand drives jump in gas prices ·          Gas prices tick down again, but storm impacts linger · ...

One bitcoin is now worth more than $11,000 (£8,180) after the digital currency’s value soared more than tenfold this year. In the last three days, alone bitcoin has gained more than a quarter in value. That’s far more than most investments return in a year, causing many to ask how they can get in on the action and others to suggest it’s a dangerous  bubble waiting to burst . So what exactly is  bitcoin  and why is it attracting so much attention? What is bitcoin? Bitcoin is a digital currency created in 2009 by a mysterious figure using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. It can be used to buy or sell items from people and companies that accept bitcoin as payment, but it differs in several key ways from traditional currencies. Most obviously, bitcoin doesn’t exist as a physical currency. There are no actual coins or notes. It exists only online.  “Real-world” currencies, like the dollar, are managed by a central bank such as the US Federal Reserve or the Ba...

Google Launchpad and Google Play South Africa were launched in November 2017 to boost African technology start-ups and develop a unique African design aesthetic. Google’s Africa operations partner with several tech hubs across the continent to help local start-ups thrive. (Image: Google Africa) The two initiatives will be based entirely in Africa, including in South Africa, and will offer budding and experienced tech entrepreneurs and designers hands-on and direct access to the Google brain trust, which will help them develop their ideas. Google Launchpad The Google Developers Launchpad Africa Space was opened on 13 November in Lagos, Nigeria. It will interact directly with tech entrepreneurs in that country, as well as offer support and software tools to help build sustainable tech business ideas from the rest of Africa. The Lagos operation is the first of its kind to be established outside the United States. The programme is accepting applications for its first onsite and ...

One week after Goldman's chief equity strategist David Kostin predicted a three-year bull market of "rational exuberance", lifting his 2018 S&P price target from 2,500 to 2,850 rising to 3,100 in 2020, and stating that should the exuberance turn "irrational". The S&P could rise as high as 5,300 by the end of 2020, another Goldman strategist, Christian Mueller-Glissmann, has decided it may be a good idea to play bad cop and cover all bases. And so, in a report released on Tuesday " The Balanced Bear - Part 1: Lower returns and latent drawdown risk"  this now bearish Goldmine warns that in the medium-term, the two likely scenarios are either I) a " slow pain " deflation scenario of low yields and high valuations "which persist as macro is stable but there are less windfall gains from rising valuations and less carry - as a result, returns are likely to be lower across assets", or ii) a " fast pain " drawdown sc...