Day: January 6, 2017

IMF agreements helped mitigate external liquidity risks in frontier markets, including Tunisia, says Fitch Ratings

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“Support from the IMF has helped to mitigate external liquidity risks and reduced the medium-term default risks in several frontier markets that entered into new programmes in 2016, Fitch Ratings said on Friday, citing among these markets, Tunisia and Egypt. However, the ratings agency said « Egypt and Tunisia are still dealing with underlying tensions and security risks.” “IMF loans should alleviate external liquidity pressures and reduce the risk of sovereign default, particularly where IMF assistance has been supported by other multilateral assistance or has improved access to global bond markets,”…

German authorities discussed Berlin suspect 7 times before attack

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State interior minister said authorities did everything they could do to preempt an attack. German security officials met seven times to discuss the potential threat posed by Anis Amri, suspected of carrying out the Berlin Christmas market attack, the Wall Street Journal reports. The details emerged from a committee meeting in the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia Thursday. Authorities had begun monitoring Amri, who entered Germany in summer 2015, in December of the same year. They became aware of his desire to plan terror attacks in Germany and were informed about a…

Angela Merkel’s conservatives gain support despite Berlin attack: poll

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Support for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc is up despite the Christmas market attack in Berlin that killed 12 people, and most Germans are not worried about terrorism, an opinion poll showed on Friday. Merkel’s conservative “Union” alliance of her Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) rose 2 percentage points from a month ago to 37 percent, the survey by pollster Infratest dimap for broadcaster ARD showed. The poll of 1,505 voters was conducted from Jan. 2 to Jan. 4. The Berlin attack, in which a…

Tunisia: olive oil production down 55%

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Tunisia’s olive oil production is estimated at 100 thousand tons this season, down over 55%, compared to the national average of 180 Thousand tons). The reasons for this decline are mainly the drought recorded last year which had a direct impact on production, Chokri Bayoudh, CEO of the National Oil Office (ONH), said in an interview with TAP news agency.  “80% of the domestic olive oil production comes mainly from the irrigated sector, which saved this campaign that started in November 2016 and is expected to be completed by the…

Italian interior minister due in Tripoli for illegal migration talks

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Italy’s new interior minister, Marco Minniti, is expected in Tripoli next week for talks on terrorism and curtailing migrant smuggling operations in Libya. He is due to meet Faiez Serraj, head of Presidency Council, the aim being to work out an agreement on blocking illegal migration routes from Libya. “Around 90 per cent of migrants arriving in Italy come from Libya”, the Italian interior ministry has said in a statement. The number in 2016 was up to 176, 554. That is eight times higher than in 2013. According to a UN…

Tunisia-Phosphate: 6.6 million tons expected in 2016, 3.6 million produced

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According to preliminary data from the operating control department of the Gafsa Phosphates Company (CPG), production reached 3 million 664 thousand tons of commercial phosphate in 2016, 45% lower than the company’s forecasts at 6.6 million tons. CPG Information Officer Ali Houchati said repetitive social protests in the mining basin delegations in 2016 hampered the achievement of this goal. He added that the blocking of production activities, for four months in 2016, in the delegation of Mdhilla, had bad repercussions on the average production of commercial phosphate, especially sincethis delegation…