0.5%
UK economic growth quickened in the most recent three months and the economy is now expected to close the year stronger than it started, according to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. The influential think-tank’s latest monthly estimate of UK gross domestic product suggests output expanded by 0.5 per cent in the three months to October, ahead of the official first reading for the quarter ended in September of 0.4 per cent.
50%
Mozambique is learning the hard way that big projects like the country’s ambitious gas scheme, can be quite difficult to bring on stream. One of the factors holding its development is the recent expansion in the world’s supply of LNG. Global supplies are on course to rise by 50 per cent from 2014 to 2021, with large projects coming on stream in Australia, Indonesia, Russia and elsewhere. Every two or three months a new LNG train, which condenses gas into its liquid form, starts production. The LNG glut has meant that the Mozambique onshore projects have basically gone on ice says Giles Farrer, research director for global LNG at Wood Mackenzie, an energy consultancy.
$1.5bn
While Mozambique’s gas project slows, Total says it has increased its bet on gas by buying the upstream liquefied natural gas assets of Engie for $1.5bn, pushing itself into second place in the sector globally. Patrick Pouyanne, Total chief executive, said gas was becoming the new world marketâ and that, after the deal with the state-backed French utility, Total would be a major playerâ in LNG with 10 per cent of market share by 2020, up from 6 per cent.
$2bn
Egypt has reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund for an instalment of about $2 billion more from a three-year, $12 billion loan programme. The payment, which is still subject to IMF executive board approval, will bring total disbursements under the program to about $6 billion.
4.5%
South Africa’s economy faces major challenges and the beleaguered government needs to win back the confidence of businesses and investors by tackling policy uncertainty and corruption, central bank governor Lesetja Kganyago says. Kganyago said in a speech at an investor conference in New York that weak business confidence had shaved an estimated one percentage point off South Africa’s economic growth last year.
He said that the central bank would like to see inflation expectations anchored at around 4.5 percent, compared with 5.1 percent now.
