The “increasingly disappointing” world economy is facing the threat of a “synchronised slowdown” and mounting risks including another bout of financial market turmoil and a political backlash against globalisation, the International Monetary Fund has warned. In its semi-annual World Economic Outlook, the IMF on Tuesday reduced its global growth forecast for 2016 by 0.2 percentage points to 3.2 per cent, downgrading its expectations for a wide range of advanced and emerging economies. The IMF said the world economy was increasingly vulnerable to “downside risks” including further market turmoil in the wake of this year’s China-led downturn as well as the political consequences of…
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BY KEVIN GIKONYO If you have felt a thin-like chill effect go down your spine by the sheer thought of a crunch, you must have directly or indirectly suffered, been tormented during year 2008-2009 by an economic Tsunami that you never saw coming. Many may have sought answers from heavens to explain what in the world was happening. This Tsunami whirled from North America in the name of un-serviced mortgages that rocked the infamous Lehman Brothers bank among other key lenders. This ghost descended on September 15, 2008 after Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy as a result of defaulted mortgages. The…
By JANE WACHIRA The “full-belly” thesis asserts that a man’s belly must be full before he can indulge in the luxury of worrying about his political freedoms. It intimates that economic rights to basic needs are more important than civil and political rights and thus realization of civil and political rights can wait until basic economic needs are secured. Amartya Sen on the other hand, on the role of civil and political rights in promoting economic security avers that civil and political rights give people the opportunity to draw attention forcefully to general needs and to demand appropriate public action.…
BY LANJI OUKO Author Tsitsi Dangarembga, in Nervous Conditions said, “It’s bad enough when a country gets colonized, but when the people do as well! That’s the end, really, that’s the end.” Colonisation is the process of control by a central system of power. Kenya became a British colony in the 19th century under British colonialism, and attained independence on 12th December 1963. Unfortunately, today, Kenya continues to experience commercial colonialism, which is a form of neo-colonialism. It entails a first world country exerting economic pressure on a third world country. A classic example of colonialism always entails a system…
By Shadrack Muyesu Picking up from President Kibaki, the Uhuru government rode to power on a promise of spurring economic growth by concentrating their efforts on expanded infrastructure spending. Considering the expensive nature of such ventures, lack of capital was no less quite an impediment. That the average Kenyan was already heavily taxed only served to further dampen the dream of an infrastructure driven economy. Jubilee arrived at an alternative in the Eurobond. The idea behind this was to raise cash while cushioning the Wanjiku from raising interest rates. Eurobond is long past yet spending on infrastructure continues, not to…
By Victor Adar For Dr Gilbert Saggia, the time is always right to do what is right. An ardent ICT expert, he tells a story of how businesses can bet on big data to flourish in a tough market environment where many players are vying for a piece of the pie. Giving a presentation during Oracle Cloud Day at a Nairobi hotel (Villa Rosa Kempinski Hotel in Nairobi) on a cool Thursday, he says cloud computing is lighting up businesses especially young ventures. On this day, moving to the cloud was instant and easy. All you needed was a smartphone,…
By Dr Kellen Kiambati There is a pivot point between those ontologically based concerns and more specific questions about how leadership gets accomplished by attending to the dynamic at the heart of leader- follower interactions. Although much of the literature assumes ‘followers’ and ‘leaders’ to be distinct modes of operating, there are also hints that separating the two roles in real life may not be completely straightforward. The work of Cecil Gibb and Peter Gronn highlighted the way in which leadership, as indicated by level of influence, flowed amongst group members rather than being situated solely with one person. Difficulties…
By James Muliro Kenyan banks need to engineer new products and diversify more geographically if they are to sustain their profitability, says a new report, ‘State of the Economy’ released by economists at Mentoria Consulting. This comes in the wake of a darkened economic outlook in Kenya following the poor performance reported in the financial sector in the past year. “In the long term, banks should not only diversify by product, but also by geography to minimise the risks of poor returns in the country in future as the banking market edges closer and closer to saturation. To cushion themselves…
As part of its drive to enhance the positioning of Kenya as a premier investment destination, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has launched international certification standards for practitioners in the capital markets industry. The launch is the product of the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) in September 2014. Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSD Africa) has provided funding for the development of the curriculum and examination for the International Introduction to Securities and Investment (Kenya) (IISI- K) certification to be awarded by CISI. This is part of a strategic partnership between…
BY NADRAT MAZRUI Social media sites are in a transition between personal and business use. Retailers are flocking to the sites in hopes of gathering the attention of the media’s user base, many of whom fall between the ages of 18 and 34. Any premier brand worth its name has a presence on the sites. The use of social media is not limited to large brands only. Smaller ecommerce merchants are also reaping the benefits. Retailers have set out to use online campaigns to display photos taken of their merchandise. When users click on the pictures, they leave comments alongside…