Sudan has begun allowing private traders to export gold, a measure designed to crack down on smuggling and attract foreign currency into the country’s cash-strapped treasury. Until now Sudan’s central bank has been the sole body legally allowed to buy and export gold and set up centers to buy the metal from small-scale miners. Acting central bank governor Badr al-Din Abdel Rahim Ibrahim said on January 1 the bank would end its gold purchases entirely. Last week, a little-known private company founded in 2015, al-Fakher, became the first to take advantage of the new regulations, exporting an initial 155 kg. Any added revenue from the new system would help Sudan’s government cope with severe economic pressure as it tries to navigate a three-year political transition. The government is serving under a military-civilian power-sharing deal struck after president Omar al-Bashir was ousted last year. … Before the new regulations, the central bank bought gold at a discount to the international price. As a result, an estimated 70-80% of it was smuggled abroad, according to government officials. The smuggling has hurt. The government lost its main source of foreign exchange when South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011, taking most of the country’s oil with it.

A new USD 305.7 million programme will help more than 13 million of Ethiopia’s most vulnerable farmers to increase and diversify their incomes, access financial services and build their resilience in rural areas threatened by climate change.
Ethiopia’s agriculture sector, which employs 80 per cent of the population, continues to suffer from frequent droughts aggravated by climate change. In 2017, insufficient rainfall during the rainy season led to catastrophic crop and livestock losses and left an estimated 8.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.
A financing agreement for the Rural Financial Intermediation Programme III (RUFIP III) was signed today by Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and Zenebu Tadesse Woldetsadik, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agencies in Rome.
“Access to finance is crucial for rural people – particularly those whose incomes are threatened by a changing climate – to expand their businesses, and to take advantage of new emerging livelihood opportunities along agricultural and agro-industrial value chain,” said Ulaç Demirag, Country Director for Ethiopia.
“This new programme will provide financial products and services to poor rural people in the least developed areas to promote poverty reduction and livelihood risk mitigation,” he said.
RUFIP III will build on the lessons and experiences of the first two phases of the programme, and will scale up delivery of rural financial services tailored to the needs of the most vulnerable smallholder farmers, particularly women and young people.
It will strengthen the capacity of the rural finance institutions to deliver an expanded range of financial products and services to a large number of rural poor people. It will also support the uptake of these products by rural savings and credit cooperatives and microfinance institutions through financial literacy training. It will also develop insurance products through the rural finance institutions to allow smallholder farmers to mitigate the risks related to climate change.
Despite improvements, Ethiopia’s child malnutrition rates are still the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. The programme will also promote nutrition awareness through campaigns and demonstrations, targeting the areas most vulnerable to food insecurity due to climate change. It will also help farmers and small enterprises to enhance their resilience to weather related shocks.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for global air freight markets showing that demand, measured in freight tonne kilometers (FTKs), decreased by 1.1% in November 2019, compared to the same period in 2018. This marks the thirteenth consecutive month of year-on-year declines in freight volumes.
Despite the decline in demand, November’s performance was the best in eight months, with the slowest year-on-year rate of contraction recorded since March 2019. In part, November’s outcome reflects the growing importance of large e-commerce events such as Singles Day in Asia and Black Friday.
While international e-commerce continues to grow, overall air cargo demand continues to face headwinds from the effects of the trade war between the US and China, the deterioration in world trade, and a broad-based slowing in global economic growth.
“Demand for air cargo in November was down 1.1% compared to the previous year. That’s better than the 3.5% decline posted in October. But it is a big disappointment considering that the fourth quarter is usually air cargo’s peak season. Looking forward, signs of a thawing in US-China trade tensions are good news. But trading conditions at present remain very challenging,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
Freight capacity, measured in available freight tonne kilometers (AFTKs), rose by 2.9% year-on-year in November 2019. Capacity growth has now outstripped demand growth for 19 consecutive months.