1 Saudi Arabia to hike oil production (Simon Jack on
BBC) State-owned oil company Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser, has said
that production would increase in 2016 ahead of a share sale that could value
the company at over $2 trillion dollars - four times the value of Apple.
The sale of up to 5% of the state giant is an
eye-catching part of a plan to double the size of the Saudi economy by 2030 and
reduce the Kingdom's reliance on oil and gas. But don't be fooled. The planned
diversification is not in place of fossil fuels, it's in addition.
Saudi Arabia's so called Vision 2030 will need its
coffers full of oil money to spend on investment in other industries such as
petrochemicals, mining, tourism and construction. It hopes to double the size
of the economy and create six million Saudi jobs within 15 years.
It's a very tall order for a country that currently
derives 90% of its income from oil and gas. If it succeeds, it won't be because
it reined in oil production, and that could spell more trouble for other
producers like Venezuela, Nigeria and, indeed, the North Sea.
2 South Africa unemployment at record high
(Johannesburg Times) Unemployment has hit its highest on record, hurting
efforts to convince ratings agencies Standard and Poor’s and Fitch not to
downgrade South Africa’s credit rating.
Stats SA reported that unemployment had risen to
26.7% of the labour force in the first quarter of this year — the highest since
the current method of collating the figures was introduced in 2008. The number
of people without a job rose by 521 000 to 5.71 million.
The rand retreated more than 2% in the first
quarter, partly because of the jobless rate but also because of a global
commodity sell-off and a firmer dollar. The currency later recovered to trade
1.9% weaker at R15.15 to the dollar, near its worst level in a month.
After the decision by Moody’s on Friday to keep its
rating steady, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said he intended to show other
agencies that this country was on the right economic track.
3 India’s stark digital divide (Dawn) India is a
global IT powerhouse but a huge majority of the population remains locked out
of the benefits brought by the digital economy, the World Bank said on Tuesday.
India’s vibrant business process outsourcing sector,
centered in the southern hubs of Bangalore and Hyderabad, has made it the
leading exporter of IT services and skilled manpower in the developing world.
Yet nearly a billion people have no Internet access,
the biggest offline population of any country, World Bank economists said at
the India launch of the World Development Report 2016, Digital Dividends. Fewer
than two in five Indian businesses have an online presence, compared with
almost two-thirds of Chinese firms, the report found.
“Skills and access, those are the key. India has all
the other elements but that is what will really make it an inclusive revolution
for India,” said Onno Ruhl, World Bank country director for India. One barrier
to online access for India’s millions of poor citizens is cost — a residential
broadband service is six to ten times more expensive than in China.
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