In January 2023, out of 36 African currencies reviewed, 29 currencies depreciated against the USD on annual basis, while 7 currencies recorded appreciations (see Table 19). The highest currency depreciation against USD was recorded for the Zimbabwean Dollar at 57.5 percent.

Finance Minister has presented the Union Budget 2023 in Parliament. Among the key takeaways are big incentives under the new income tax regime and a big push in capex. As the Finance Minister presented the Budget, equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty gained momentum in morning trade.

India to witness GDP growth of 6.0 per cent to 6.8 per cent in 2023-24, depending on the trajectory of economic and political developments globally, said the Economic Survey 2022-23 tabled in the Parliament on 31.01.2023.

The January 2023 World Economic Outlook Update projects that global growth will fall to 2.9 percent in 2023 but rise to 3.1 percent in 2024. The 2023 forecast is 0.2 percentage point higher than predicted in the October 2022 World Economic Outlook but below the historical average of 3.8 percent.

The world output growth is projected to decelerate from an estimated 3 per cent in 2022 to 1.9 per cent in 2023, marking one of the lowest growth rates in recent decades, according to this report by the United Nations.

Africa’s Macroeconomic Performance and Outlook is the African Development Bank Group’s new biannual publication to be released in the first and third quarters of each year.

We are living through an unprecedented moment of multiple crises. Tens of millions more people are facing hunger. Hundreds of millions more face impossible rises in the cost of basic goods or heating their homes. Poverty has increased for the first time in 25 years. At the same time, these multiple crises all have winners.

Faltering  global employment growth and the pressure on decent working conditions risk undermining social justice, according to this World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2023 report by the ILO.

Just five percent of Indians own more than 60 percent of the country’s wealth while the bottom 50 percent of India’s population possess only three percent of wealth, according to Oxfam India’s latest report “Survival of the Richest: The India story”. India’s richest man has seen his wealth soar by 46 percent in 2022.

The cost of living crisis is the biggest short-term global risk while the failure of climate mitigation is the number one long-term concern, according to this Global Risks Report 2023 by the World Economic Forum.