ABUJA/LONDON (Reuters) – Nigeria, they say, has almost as many Manchester United fans as there are Canadians on the planet – 33 million.

Such a figure is hard to verify, but a big contingent of the English soccer team’s huge global following undoubtedly lives in the West African nation.

CAIRO, March 21 (Reuters) – Egypt’s central bank raised
interest rates on Thursday, hoping to curb soaring inflation and
slow a sliding pound currency, but the first increase in over a
year is likely to hurt a very weak economy.

The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announced 50
basis point increases in both its main rates, taking the
overnight deposit rate to 9.75 percent and the overnight lending
rate to 10.75 percent.

CAIRO, March 21 (Reuters) – Egypt’s revival of a scheme
meant to protect foreign buyers of government debt and stocks
will struggle to achieve a wider aim – easing an acute dollar
shortage.

Earlier this month the central bank reopened a modified
version of a mechanism last used in 2003 which ring-fences
dollars invested in Egyptian securities.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Once parliamentary elections are out of the way, Egypt stands a chance of securing an International Monetary Fund loan to help address its currency and budget crisis; the problem is that no one knows when that will be.

With face-to-face contact between Egypt and the IMF re-established this week after a two-month gap, both sides are pushing for urgent action, but with strikingly different emphases.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt is at risk of a “revolution of the hungry” two years after Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising, as food and energy prices will soar with or without an IMF deal.

Failure to get the $4.8 billion loan or some other funding would have dire consequences: if Egypt keeps burning foreign currency at the rate it has done since the 2011 uprising, it will have none left in little more than a year.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s need to get the economy back on its feet is paramount and urgent, and the government should strike a loan deal with the IMF, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday.

The country’s foreign currency reserves have dived to little more than a third of levels before the 2011 revolution and the budget deficit is soaring as a sliding Egyptian pound pushes up the cost of state subsidies for imported fuel and food.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt seems to realise the money has nearly run out and it must turn to the IMF or a willing friend in the Gulf, where it now has just one, Qatar.

After months of delays, the Islamist government has produced a new plan to reverse a slide in its foreign currency reserves and tackle a budget deficit that could overwhelm a stable wealthy nation, let alone a country riven by political conflict.

LONDON (Reuters) – European shares, the euro and oil fell on Friday as hopes for more global monetary easing dwindled despite the prospect of slower economic growth in Germany and China, and expectations of a bailout for Spanish banks failed to stop the rot.

A credit rating cut for Madrid forced investors to confront the reality of the euro zone crisis after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke damped recent hopes that the central bank would announce new moves to stimulate the U.S. economy later this month.

LONDON (Reuters) – European shares, the euro and oil fell on Friday as hopes for more global monetary easing dwindled despite the prospect of slower economic growth in Germany and China, and expectations of a bailout for Spanish banks failed to stop the rot.

A credit rating cut for Madrid forced investors to confront the reality of the euro zone crisis after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke damped recent hopes that the central bank would announce new moves to stimulate the U.S. economy later this month.

LONDON (Reuters) – European shares, the euro and oil fell on Friday as hopes for more global monetary easing dwindled despite the prospect of slower economic growth in Germany and China, and expectations of a bailout for Spanish banks failed to stop the rot.

A credit rating cut for Madrid forced investors to confront the reality of the euro zone crisis after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke damped recent hopes that the central bank would announce new moves to stimulate the U.S. economy later this month.