CVRD to resettle families off Mozambique coal mine

(Reuters) - Brazil's Companhia Vale do Rio Doce plans to spend $30 million to resettle 1,200 families occupying a mining site in Mozambique, clearing the way for development of the project, a newspaper reported on Monday.

"We have our teams working in the district of Inhangoma to demarcate the areas where the local population would be resettled in a process to be concluded before the end of the year," CVRD official Andre Vasconcelos was quoted as saying by Noticias, a daily newspaper in Mozambique.


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Mozambique eyes bio-fuels to cut energy costs

(Reuters) - Mozambique is considering investing in a massive bio-fuels programme to cut oil imports and supply its growing manufacturing and tourism sectors with low-cost energy, one of its ministers said on Friday.

"This is an ambitious and viable programme," Science and Technology Minister Venancio Massingue told Reuters in an interview. "It's our plan to start massive production and reduce fuel imports, boost agricultural production and tourism."


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Mozambique eyes World Cup tourism windfall

(Reuters) - Mozambique plans to spend $600 million on new hotels, casinos and other leisure facilities as part of an effort to capitalise on a tourism boom expected when neighbouring South Africa hosts the 2010 soccer World Cup.

In an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, Albino Mahumana, Mozambique's national tourism director, said the southern African nation was hoping to lure a large number of visiting soccer fans to its famous beaches and colonial cities.


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IMF endorses Mozambique policies with new programme

(Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund on Monday approved Mozambique's graduation to an IMF programme designed to monitor a country's policies but involves no loans.

The IMF also agreed to disburse $2.4 million to the southern African nation, the sixth and final tranche under a 2004 IMF loan agreement that now expires.


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DRC cuts power supplies to Zimbabwe over debt - report

(Reuters) - The Democratic Republic of Congo has cut electricity to Zimbabwe over non payment of a $5 million debt, official media reported on Tuesday, as the country continues to suffer massive power blackouts.

Zimbabwe imports 35 percent of its electricity needs from South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo because it can not produce enough from its ageing local generating plants.


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Mozambique to revamp airports ahead of World Cup

(Reuters) - Mozambique's Airports Company, ADM, plans to revamp all the country's 19 airports in anticipation of growing traffic, especially when South Africa hosts the Soccer World Cup in 2010, a spokesman said Tuesday.

ADM spokesman Antonio Sitoe told Reuters that bigger terminals and other infrastructure at Mozambique's airports would be in place before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and would be built at a cost of over $300 million.


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Mozambique says CVRD near start of coal project

(Reuters) - Brazilian miner Companhia Vale do Rio Doce has promised to begin developing the $1.2 billion Moatize coal project in Mozambique within three months, Mozambique's mining minister said on Wednesday.

A consortium led by CVRD, the world's top iron ore producer, made the commitment in a development plan recently submitted to the Mozambique government, Mineral Resources Minister Esperanca Bias told state-run radio in the southern African nation.


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Standard Bank Economics Reports

Market forecast
Monthly short- to medium-term foreign exchange, inflation and interest rate outlook.

Macroeconomic forecast
Long-term annual forecasts of growth, inflation, interest rates and exchange rates.

Tanzania: Blueprint 2007
Economic growth is expected to accelerate to 7.3% in 2007 from 5.9% in 2006, as the country emerges from the retarding effects of the drought that caused a severe energy shortage and underproduction in the agriculture sector.

Mozambique: Blueprint 2007
After declining for four consecutive months to this year’s low of 10.6% y/y in August, overall inflation accelerated in September to 12.7% y/y. The increase in overall inflation in September was largely due to rising food inflationary pressures.