DAKAR, May 12 (Reuters) – The World Bank’s investment arm
will increase lending to sub-Saharan Africa by up to a quarter
this year as private sector companies flock to the fast-growing
region, its vice-president said.

Jean-Philippe Prosper said the International Finance
Corporation (IFC) would make new investments of between $4.5 and
$5 billion for the fiscal year ending in June, up from $4
billion the previous year.

PARIS/DAKAR (Reuters) – Chad’s President Idriss Deby, a survivor of countless rebellions, has stepped into a void left by Africa’s traditional heavyweights and turned his desert nation into a powerbroker as France disengages from its former colonies.

The success of Chad’s 2,000 battle-hardened troops in a French-led mission to hunt down al Qaeda fighters in the deserts of northern Mali has marked it out as the only African nation to quickly deploy an effective fighting force.

DAKAR (Reuters) – The arrest of the former president’s son on corruption charges in Senegal should be taken as a sign that the age of impunity in public life is over, Justice Minister Aminata Toure said on Tuesday.

Karim Wade, the most powerful figure in his father Abdoulaye Wade’s 2000-2012 government, was arrested last week on suspicion of amassing up to $1.4 billion (918.4 million pounds) in assets via a network of shady holding companies.

DAKAR, April 9 (Reuters) – Growth in the eight-nation West
African Economic and Monetary Union will hit 6.5 percent this
year thanks to a post-crisis recovery in regional powerhouse
Ivory Coast but governments need to press ahead with reforms,
the Central Bank chief said.

Speaking as part of a Reuters Africa Investment Summit,
Tiemoko Meyliet Kone said strong commodities demand from
emerging economies such as China and India would help the
currency bloc shrug off the effects of an economic slowdown in
Europe, traditionally its main trading partner.

DAKAR (Reuters) – Growth in the eight-nation West African Economic and Monetary Union will hit 6.5 percent this year thanks to a post-crisis recovery in regional powerhouse Ivory Coast but governments need to press ahead with reforms, the Central Bank chief said.

Tiemoko Meyliet Kone said strong commodities demand from emerging economies such as China and India would help the currency bloc shrug off the effects of an economic slowdown in Europe, traditionally its main trading partner.

PARIS, Dec 20 (Reuters) – France will cut its medium- and
long-term debt issuance next year to 169 billion euros, from 178
billion euros in 2012, thanks to a lower budget deficit and debt
buybacks, the debt management agency said on Thursday.

Agence France Tresor (AFT) said it had trimmed its issuance
plans for 2013 by 1 billion euros from a September forecast
thanks to debt buybacks, which allowed it to lower the cost of
debt redemptions next year.

PARIS, Dec 6 (Reuters) – West African states must deploy a
military force in north Mali quickly or it will become
increasingly difficult and costly to oust Islamist groups there,
Ivory Coast Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan said in an
interview.

Duncan, a former foreign minister, said that calls from
Washington and elsewhere for a delay in introducing a force of
3,300 African troops were misguided as this would increase the
risk of militant attacks in West Africa and beyond.

PARIS, Dec 4 (Reuters) – Ivory Coast President Alassane
Ouattara appealed to international donors on Tuesday for $4
billion to help fund post-war development, saying it would help
stem the spread of instability and crime in West Africa.

With the international community anxious to contain an al
Qaeda enclave in neighbouring Mali, Ouattara urged a conference
of wealthy nations and multilateral organisations in Paris to
treat Ivory Coast as an anchor of stability in West Africa.

PARIS (Reuters) – The euro zone’s crisis is far from over and its members must consolidate their budgets and forge a banking union to put the bloc on a more stable economic footing, the leaders of the IMF and European Central Bank said on Friday.

Underlining the bloc’s woes, data showed both German retail sales and French consumer spending falling faster than expected as well as stubborn Spanish inflation that will likely lift the cost of state pension rises for an already hard-pressed budget.

PARIS (Reuters) – Moody’s, the second credit-rating agency to strip France of its top triple-A rank, told Reuters it will downgrade the country’s debt further if the government fails to implement reforms such as a labor market overhaul.

Dietmar Hornung, Moody’s lead analyst for France’s sovereign rating and author of the downgrade statement, said a sustained loss of competitiveness in Europe’s second biggest economy and its failure to tackle structural problems prompted the decision to cut France by one notch to Aa1 with a negative outlook.