By Duncan Miriri

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Chinese lenders approved loans worth $4.61 billion to Africa last year, marking the first annual increase since 2016, an independent study showed on Thursday.

Africa secured more than $10 billion in loans a year from China between 2012-2018, thanks to President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but the lending fell precipitously from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Last year's figure, a more than three-fold increase from 2022, shows China is keen to curb risks associated with highly indebted economies, the study by Boston University's Global Development Policy Centre found.

"Beijing appears to be looking for a more sustainable equilibrium level of lending and experimenting with a (new) strategy," said the university centre, which runs the Chinese Loans to Africa Database project.

Last year's biggest items include a nearly $1 billion loan from China Development Bank to Nigeria for the Kaduna-to-Kano Railway and similar size liquidity facility by the lender to Egypt's central bank.

China has vaulted to the top bilateral lender for many African nations like Ethiopia in recent years.

It has lent the continent a total of $182.28 billion between 2000-2023, the Boston University study found, with the bulk of the finances going to Africa's energy, transport and ICT sectors.

Africa featured prominently in the initial years of BRI, as China sought to recreate the ancient Silk Road and extend its geopolitical and economic influence through a global infrastructure development push.

China, however, started to turn off the cash spigot in 2019, a shift that was accelerated by the pandemic, leaving a series of incomplete projects around the region, including a modern railway meant to link Kenya with its neighbours.

The reduction in loans was caused by China's own domestic pressures and growing debt burdens among African economies. Zambia, Ghana and Ethiopia have gone into protracted debt overhauls since 2021.

More than half of the loans committed last year, or $2.59 billion, were to regional and national lenders, underscoring Beijing's new strategy, the study by Boston University found.

"Chinese lenders' focus on African financial institutions most likely represent a risk mitigation strategy that avoids exposure to African countries' debt challenges," it said.

Nearly a tenth of 2023 loans were for three solar and hydropower energy projects, the study found, illustrating a desire by China to move into funding renewable energy instead of coal-fired power plants.

Still, the discernible trends in last year's figures did not offer a clear direction of China's financial engagement with the continent, the study showed, since Chinese institutions also wrote loans to ailing economies like Nigeria and Angola.

"It remains to be seen whether China's partnerships in Africa will retain their quality," the Global Development Policy Centre said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian economy has shown solid growth in many sectors while unemployment remains at a record low, new data showed on Wednesday, prompting officials to hint at a brighter outlook for the year despite Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine.

Driven by military production, industrial output rose by 3.3% in July compared with a 2.7% increase the previous month, and by 4.8% since the start of the year, compared with 3.1% growth in the same period in 2023.

A preliminary estimate for gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first half of the year stood at 4.6%, compared with 1.8% for the same period last year.

Officials attributed this growth to strong capital investment, including by the private sector, which in the second quarter rose by 8.3% year-on-year to 8.44 trillion roubles ($92 billion), following 14.5% growth in the first quarter of the year.

"Given such high results in the first half of the year, we expect even higher figures for the entire year of 2024 than we had initially projected in the economic forecast published in April," said Polina Kryuchkova, deputy economy minister.

The data suggested the economy was holding up despite Western economic sanctions and problems with international payments with Russia's major trading partners, such as China, which led to a 9% fall in overall imports in the first half of the year.

However, they also pointed to overheating, which forced the central bank to hike its benchmark interest rate by 200 basis points to 18% in July, the highest level in more than two years.

The central bank said persistent labour shortages and wage growth, as well as high inflation, were the main signs of an overheated economy and promised to maintain tight monetary policy and fight inflation until it cools.

New statistics showed that real wages rose 6.2% year-on-year in June, following an 8.8% increase in the previous month, while average nominal wages rose 15.3% year-on-year to 89,145 roubles a month.

Wage growth in Russia is being spurred by the payouts handed to contract soldiers fighting in Ukraine, which have become a new benchmark in the economy as workers in fast-growing sectors facing acute labour shortages demand similar pay from employers.

In the first half of the year, real wages grew by 9.4%, while nominal wages increased by 18.1% compared with the same period in 2023, according to the new data. Unemployment remained at a historically low level of 1.9 million people in July, or 2.4% of the workforce.

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Biden administration said Tuesday it is awarding $521 million in grants to build out electric vehicle charging and deploying more than 9,200 EV charging ports.

The Energy Department and Federal Highway Administration said $321 million will be allocated for 41 community projects that expand EV charging infrastructure, while $200 million will fund 10 corridor fast-charging projects.

Milwaukee will receive $15 million to install EV chargers at 53 sites while Atlanta will receive $11.8 million to install a DC Fast Charging Hub at the city's airport with 50 DC fast chargers providing charging for rental cars, ride-share drivers, and airport shuttles.

The Biden administration has faced harsh criticism for the slow deployment of EV charging stations from a $5-billion U.S. government program created in 2021.

Automakers and others say drastically expanding EV-charging stations is crucial to the wide deployment of electric vehicles, key to U.S. efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The White House goal is to grow the nationwide network of chargers to 500,000 ports, including high-speed chargers - no more than 50 miles (80 km) apart - on the nation's busiest highways.

As of August, the United States had 192,000 public charging ports and since the start of the Biden administration, the number of publicly available fast-charging ports has increased by 90%.

FHWA said approximately 1,000 new public chargers being added each week.

In June, just seven EV-charging stations had been deployed under the 2021 U.S. program consisting of a few dozen total charging ports, said Shailen Bhatt, who heads the Federal Highway Administration.

By Daksh Grover

(Reuters) - Gold prices slipped on Wednesday as the dollar ticked up, while investors awaited a key U.S. inflation report due this week for more clarity on the size of a likely September rate cut.

Spot gold fell 0.4% to $2,514.11 per ounce by 0313 GMT. Bullion hit a record high of $2,531.60 on Aug. 20.

U.S. gold futures were down 0.2% to $2,549.00.

The dollar index was up 0.1%, diminishing gold's attractiveness for foreign currency holders. [USD/]

"Market seems to be waiting for a catalyst to ignite the potential bullish breakthrough above that $2,532 level," said Kelvin Wong, OANDA's senior market analyst for Asia Pacific.

The short-term trend for gold remains strong, with the potential to hit new highs. In the longer term, it may face resistance around the $2,585 to $2,595 range, Wong added.

Market participants are looking forward to the release of the U.S. personal consumption expenditure (PCE) data, the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation, on Friday.

Traders have fully priced in a Fed easing for next month, with a 67% chance of a 25-basis-point cut and about 33% chance of a bigger 50-bp reduction, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

Non-yielding bullion tends to thrive in a low-interest-rate environment.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell last week endorsed an imminent start to rate cuts and expressed confidence that inflation is within reach of the U.S. central bank's 2% target.

A report on Tuesday showed that U.S. consumer confidence rose to a six-month high in August but Americans are becoming more anxious about the labour market.

China's net gold imports via Hong Kong in July rose by about 17% from the previous month, the first gain since March, data showed on Tuesday.

Among other metals, spot silver slipped 0.7% to $29.78 per ounce, platinum rose 0.3% to $956.00 and palladium fell 0.4% to $966.40.

By Tom Westbrook

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Global stocks were poised near record highs on Wednesday, with the next move riding on results at chipmaking market darling Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), while sterling notched a 2-1/2 year high as traders bet that Britain will lag the U.S. in cutting interest rates.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.4%. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.2%.

Oil retraced a recent spike on Middle East tensions as gloom on Chinese demand returned to the fore and Brent crude futures traded just below $80 a barrel. [O/R]

Nvidia's market value has ballooned thanks to its dominance of the computing hardware behind artificial intelligence. The stock price is up some 3000% since 2019 and with a market capitalisation of $3.2 trillion, a move in its shares affects the entire market.

Second-quarter revenue will likely have doubled, though even that may disappoint expectations. Options pricing shows traders anticipate a near 10% - or $300 billion - swing in market value, likely the largest earnings move of any company, ever.

The results at the "so-called 'most important company in the world,'" stand between Wall Street and fresh record highs, noted Capital.com analyst Kyle Rodda, and set the tone for the sector.

"The company’s revenue and sales guidance is a barometer of AI capex, with inferences to be drawn about the health of the other mega-cap tech names," he said.

The S&P 500 went up about 0.2% overnight and futures drifted 0.1% lower in Asia, while Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.3%.

E-commerce shares stabilised in Hong Kong - where the Hang Seng slipped 0.5% - after taking a kicking following downbeat remarks from discount online retailer PDD Holdings earlier in the week.

China's biggest sportswear maker, Anta, was the top gainer and shares were up 8.5% after better-than-expected profits and $1.3 billion buyback. Shares in Australian gambling company Tabcorp slid 12% and headed for their largest drop since 2020 after the company wrote down asset prices and said rising costs meant it would miss earnings targets.

Debt and currency markets were steady in the Asia session, though the Australian dollar popped up about 0.2% to touch its highest since January at $0.6813 after monthly inflation data was slightly higher than market expectations.

Globally a weakening dollar in anticipation of U.S. rate cuts has lifted most other currencies because markets see U.S. short-term rates, currently above 5.25%, as having furthest to fall. The yen traded at 144.32 per dollar.

Interest rate futures price 100 basis points of U.S. rate cuts this year and last week Fed Chair Jerome Powell endorsed an imminent start to cuts saying "the time has come". The tone contrasts with caution at the Bank of England, which has helped sterling become the top-performing G10 currency with a 4.1% gain for the year-to-date.

It hit its highest in more than two years overnight at $1.3269 and hovered near that level on Wednesday. [GBP/]

"UK services sector inflation...is still uncomfortably high," Rabobank senior strategist Jane Foley said in a note.

"In our view, the BoE is likely to only cut rates once a quarter going forward," she said, against a forecast for four consecutive 25 bp cuts from the Fed from September to January.

Rates markets were steady with 10-year U.S. Treasury yields at 3.83%, two-year yields at 3.87% and the gap between the two its narrowest in nearly three weeks.

Heavy selling in the New York evening drove bitcoin down 4% on the dollar to $59,350. Gold held at $2,517 an ounce.

(Reuters) -Ukraine will temporarily suspend payments on GDP warrants starting from May 31, 2025, according to government decision published on the official website late on Tuesday.

Kyiv will also temporarily suspend payments for loans from Cargill Financial Services International, Inc, starting from Sept. 3, and on government-guaranteed bonds of Ukrainian power firm Ukrenergo starting from Nov. 9, according to the document.

The GDP warrants and private debt obligations are not part of the country's sovereign restructuring deal that the government of the war-torn country is expected to finalise any time now.

With the Russian war in Ukraine now in its third year, the Kyiv government relies heavily on foreign financial aid to be able to finance its social and humanitarian payments. The bulk of Ukraine's state revenues goes to defence efforts.

The GDP warrant, an instrument linked to the country's economic output growth was created during Ukraine's 2015 debt restructuring in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea as a sweetener to creditors. JPMorgan calculates that Ukraine owes $2.6 billion on this instrument.

About $700 million is owed to U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill and the state grid company Ukrenergo has a government guarantee on a $830 million note.

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer confidence rose to a six-month high in August amid optimism over the economic outlook, but Americans are becoming more anxious about the labor market after the unemployment rate jumped to near a three-year high of 4.3% last month.

The better-than-expected reading in consumer confidence, reported by the Conference Board on Tuesday, reflected improved perceptions of business conditions over the next six months, and the survey suggested the odds of a recession had continued to decline. Consumers' uneasiness over the labor market is mirrored by concerns at the Federal Reserve, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell last Friday signaling interest rate cuts were imminent.

"This report supports a rate cut on both the decline in inflation expectations and a softening labor market, but is not so weak as to suggest a recession at this point," said Conrad DeQuadros, senior economic adviser at Brean Capital.

The Conference Board's consumer confidence index increased to 103.3 this month, the highest level since February, from an upwardly revised 101.9 in July. 

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index would be little changed from the previously reported 100.3. Confidence was higher among consumers aged 35 years and older, and those with annual incomes above $100,000. 

The cutoff date for the survey was Aug. 21. The rise in confidence could have been influenced by President Joe Biden dropping out of the November presidential race and the nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris to head the Democratic Party ticket.

The Conference Board made no mention of any political impact. The University of Michigan this month, however, attributed the rise in its consumer sentiment measure in August to increased optimism among Democrats compared with Republicans.

Former President Donald Trump is the Republican Party candidate in the upcoming election.

The Conference Board's Expectations Index, based on consumers' short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions, improved to 82.5. That was the highest level since August 2023 and was up from 81.1 in July. It was the second straight monthly reading above 80. A reading below 80 usually signals a recession ahead.

Consumers were less upbeat, however, about the labor market. The share of consumers who viewed jobs as "plentiful" slipped to 32.8% from 33.4% in July. Some 16.4% of consumers said jobs were "hard to get," up from 16.3% last month.

The survey's so-called labor market differential, derived from data on respondents' views on whether jobs are plentiful or hard to get, fell to 16.4, the narrowest since March 2021, from 17.1 in July. This measure correlates to the unemployment rate in the Labor Department's monthly employment report. The unemployment rate has risen for four straight months.

"While we wouldn't necessarily use it to predict month-to-month changes in the unemployment rate, the fact that it keeps worsening is not a good development," said Abiel Reinhart, an economist at J.P. Morgan, referring to the labor market differential. "The message here is that the July unemployment increase was not just a fluke."

Stocks on Wall Street were little changed. The dollar fell against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury yields rose.

RATE CUTS COMING

Consumers' 12-month inflation expectations dropped to 4.9%, the lowest level since March 2020, from 5.3% in July. Financial markets expect the U.S. central bank to kick off its easing cycle next month with a 25-basis-point rate reduction, though a half-percentage-point cut cannot be ruled out. 

The Fed has maintained its benchmark overnight interest rate in the current 5.25%-5.50% range for more than a year, having raised the policy rate by 525 basis points in 2022 and 2023. 

With job growth ebbing, consumers were more pessimistic on their income prospects over the next six months. 

The share of consumers expecting their incomes to increase fell to 16.9% from 17.2% in July. The proportion anticipating a decline rose to 12.7% from 11.6% last month.

Rising worries about finances weighed on buying plans for the next six months. At face value that would suggest softer consumer spending in the months ahead, but there is not a strong correlation between confidence and spending.

"Politically-driven shifts in sentiment tend to be poorly correlated with spending decisions," said Oliver Allen, senior U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Buying plans for motor vehicles fell as did those for major household appliances. The share of consumers intending to purchase a house was the smallest since early 2013. 

Higher mortgage rates and home prices have pushed the dream of owning a home out of the reach of many Americans.

By Jihoon Lee, Cynthia Kim and Joyce Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) - As South Korea scrambles to halt the sharp decline in its birth rate, policymakers are having a hard time convincing many in their 20s and 30s that parenthood is a better investment than stylish clothes or fancy restaurants.

Asia's fourth-largest economy plans to launch a new government ministry dedicated to demographic challenges after years of incentives failed to ease the baby crisis.

But for Park Yeon, a 28-year-old fashion Instagrammer and aspiring singer, spending choices are guided mostly by her appetites for clothing and travel, leaving little budget for marriage and babies.

"I'm all about YOLO (you only live once)," said Park as she sells her Supreme T-shirts at a thrift fashion festival in Seoul's high-fashion enclave of Seongsu-dong.

"There isn't enough left to save each month after I do things to reward myself. Getting married might happen at some point but being happy right now - that's more important, right?"

South Korea continues to break its own record for having the world's lowest birth rate, which hit a fresh low last year.

Sociologists say the lifestyle priorities of Koreans in their 20s and 30s - considered Generations Y and Z - mean they spend more and save less on average than the wider population or their peers in other countries, neither of which are conducive to nest building.

"They are status hunting. Their high spending habits show young people are working on their own emblems of success online rather than focusing on the impossible goals of settling down and have children," said Jung Jae-hoon, a sociology professor at Seoul Women's University.

Not even South Korea's aggressive interest rate hikes over the past three years have been able to rein in youthful spending.

The savings rate for those in their 30s declined to 28.5% in the first quarter from 29.4% five years ago, while that for all other age groups increased in the same period, central bank data shows.    

At the same time, people in their 20s and 30s make up the biggest spenders at department stores and top-tier hotels while their travel spending rose to 40.1% from 33.3% in the past three years.

The proportion of spending by those in their 20s at high-end department stores has almost doubled to 12% in the three years to May, data from Hyundai (OTC:HYMTF) Card shows, while that for all other age groups declined.

Last year alone, revenue at pricey buffet restaurants jumped 30.3%, versus a gain of 10.5% at fast food restaurants and 9% for the entire dining industry, according to market research firm Euromonitor.

In one example, sales at Seoul Dragon City Hotel - a popular Instagram spot - for its 90,000 won ($68) all-you-can-eat seasonal strawberry dessert jumped 150% from last winter, even after the hotel hiked the price by 12.5%.

In contrast, 25- to 29-year-olds in Australia slashed spending 3.5% in the first quarter of 2024 from a year earlier due to cost-of-living pressure, a report by Commonwealth Bank of Australia (OTC:CMWAY) shows. 

Koreans' fancy tastes have made them the world's biggest per-capita spenders on luxury brands, Morgan Stanley's research showed last year, and a hot destination for the biggest luxury brands.

Chanel, Celine and Dior have all signed deals with teen-focused K-pop groups such as Blackpink and NewJeans as global brand ambassadors.

PLEASURE AND PAIN

To be sure, financial hardship is by far the biggest reason South Koreans cited for not having children, according to a survey by research firm PMI Co. in May.

About 46% of 1,800 respondents blamed either job uncertainty or education costs for this decision.

That's worsened by annual incomes only rising 2.0% for those in their 20s and 30s last year, slower than the 4.5% increase for all households, according to Statistics Korea.

But Jung added a youth focus on more immediate pleasures also explains why young people don't respond to the government's subsidy-based baby boosting policies.   

The Yoon Suk Yeol administration in May announced a plan to create a new ministry to focus on demographic issues, after dozens of policy measures including subsidies to reverse vasectomies, cash support for families with newborns, free taxi rides and longer paid childcare leave failed to reverse the plunging birth rates.

In a survey of 17 advanced countries by the U.S. Pew Research Center in 2021 asking what makes life meaningful, South Korea was the only country where material well-being was the top response. Elsewhere, family or health was the top answer.

For Park, having children is an add-on she may consider if her singing career takes off.

"If things work out well with what I do, savings and getting married and all those will follow. For now, enjoying my life and working on my dream job are my priorities," she said.

By Patturaja Murugaboopathy and Gaurav Dogra

(Reuters) - Foreign investors are unloading their holdings of expensive Indian stocks and turning instead to new listings in primary markets as they seek cheaper exposure to the market and better returns.

Their selling has been driven by profit booking as Indian stocks trade at record highs, and at valuations topping those of most major stock markets.

Investors are pumping money instead into initial public offerings (IPOs), whose valuations are lower and where there is less of a scramble for stocks.

Foreigners have so far sold a net $3.42 billion worth of equities in the secondary market. They purchased a net $1.47 billion through primary market issuances so far this month, according to India's Central Depository Services Ltd.

A Societe Generale (OTC:SCGLY) (SG) report showed foreigners have bought more than $6 billion of stocks on the primary market this year, the highest since 2021.

"Foreign investors are shying from deploying funds into secondary market for long term and seeing better and faster return prospects in the primary market," said Rajat Agarwal, Asia equity strategist at SG.

They are sellers in the secondary market this year partly because earnings growth prospects have moderated, he said.

India's NSE Nifty 50 index has risen 14% this year, and the 12-month price-to-earnings ratio for its large-and-mid cap stocks stands at 24 times, the highest among major global markets, according to LSEG data.

Meanwhile, the Indian primary market has been busy, with IPO listings of $7.3 billion so far this year - the highest in Asia, followed by China's $5.1 billion, according to Dealogic data.

Foreigners are lured by the cheapness of stocks in primary markets.

Jon Withaar, head of Asia Special Situations, Pictet Asset Management, said the valuations tend to be lower in primary markets due to lack of competition from retail, index, ETFs and most types of institutional investors.

"Companies offering IPOs or rights issues tend to price their shares conservatively to ensure a successful launch and attract more investor interest," said Michael Collins, chief executive officer of WinCap Financial.

"This lower valuation may also be seen as an opportunity for foreign investors who believe that these companies have potential for significant growth in the long run".

With the Fed poised to lower interest rates and investors looking to enter riskier markets for higher returns, analysts expect foreigners will continue to use this route to own Indian stocks.

By Qiaoyi Li and Ryan Woo

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's industrial profits grew faster in July buoyed by high-tech manufacturing, even as sluggish domestic demand weighed on the recovery in the world's second-largest economy.

Profits in July jumped 4.1% from a year earlier following a 3.6% rise in June, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed on Tuesday.

For the January-July period, profits expanded slightly faster at 3.6% compared with 3.5% in the first half, offering some hope of improving momentum amid dreary factory output, export, prices and banking lending numbers earlier in August.

"The mild expansion in industrial profits showed that domestic macro policies are taking effect" as the factory sector is undergoing a transition and upgrade, said Zhou Maohua, a macroeconomic researcher at China Everbright (OTC:CHFFF) Bank.

The high-tech manufacturing sector, including the making of lithium-ion batteries and semiconductors and related equipment, led the earnings growth with a 12.8% rise in the January-July period, the data showed.

Still, "domestic consumption demand remains weak while the external environment is complex and volatile," said NBS statistician Wei Ning, suggesting more efforts were needed to boost domestic demand.

Tamer shipments last month raised a red flag over the country's export-driven recovery and heightened concerns about frail domestic demand.

China's July bank loans recorded the first contraction in 19 years, central bank data showed earlier.

Electric vehicle battery giant CATL recorded faster profit growth in the second quarter, but its revenue fell at a faster clip during the quarter, as EV sales slow in the world's largest auto market.

Amid lacklustre demand, a prolonged housing downturn and employment worries, Beijing is looking to pivot its stimulus toward consumption.

At a cabinet plenary session earlier this month, Premier Li Qiang vowed to boost the economy with a focus on consumption.

State-owned firms booked a 1% rise in profits in the first seven months, foreign firms posted a 9.9% gain, while private-sector companies saw profits up 7.3%, NBS data showed.

Industrial profit numbers cover firms with annual revenue of at least 20 million yuan ($2.80 million) from their main operations.

($1 = 7.1395 Chinese yuan)