International Monetary Fund, IMF has projected that China's economic growth could moderate further in 2020 — even though the global economy is likely to pick up the pace. The fund, in its World Economic Outlook report, said the Chinese economy could grow at 5.8% next year — slower than the 6.1% forecast for 2019. China grew by 6.6% last year. Tao Zhang, IMF’s deputy managing director revealed that the Chinese economy is slowing down, which has continued an earlier trend of slowing down, which started a couple of years ago,” Still, Zhang said such growth rates are “reasonable” given that China is restructuring its economy to expand in a more sustainable way. That means relying less on debt to fuel growth while focusing more on domestic consumption. The fund said world economic growth is forecast to rebound to 3.4% in 2020, after an anticipated slowdown to 3% this year from 3.6% last year due partly to uncertainties caused by the U.S.-China trade war.

The closure of Nigeria’ s land borders for over two months has elicited reactions from different stakeholders, with farmers expressing support for the action. But some economists, including the Director-General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Muda Yusuf, and the Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, said the development might not augur well for the Nigerian economy as it could come with high losses. The Nigeria Customs Service reported a drastic reduction in smuggling of rice, poultry products, and sugar had followed the closure, just as it said the smuggling of petroleum products from Nigeria to neighboring countries had declined considerably. The President, Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, Aminu Goronyo, told The PUNCH that the closure had made farmers across the country to increase their farming activities. He said “The impact of this will start to show maybe in the next three to four months. If the closure of the borders is meant to stop the importation of food items into Nigeria, we are 100% in support of it.” On their part, the Poultry Association of Nigeria said the production of broiler chicken had increased to 70 per cent as a result of the closure of Nigeria’ s borders. PAN’ s President, Ezekiel Ibrahim, said a recent study conducted by the association revealed that the closure of the borders had impacted positively on local poultry production. He said, “The move within a few months has also raised the production of broiler chicken from 45% to 70%.” According to him, the Republic of Benin had been a transit camp for the smuggling of over one million metric tons of frozen chicken into Nigeria for the past 10 years.

The Rwandan Cabinet has approved an agreement with Russia to advance the use of nuclear energy for "peaceful purposes," a move that is expected to bolster relations between the two countries and advance the latter's interests in the region. This comes ahead of the first Russia-African Forum next week in the city of Sochi, which President Paul Kagame has confirmed attendance, accompanied by a delegation of senior government officials. Minister of Trade and Industry, Soraya Hakuziyaremye, met top Russian politicians in Moscow early this year, including Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as well as investors to discuss further trade partnerships. The deal was boosted in May when a Russian government nuclear parastatal, Rosatom Global, reached an agreement to set up the nuclear plant by 2024--that the government says will help in the advancement of technology in agriculture, energy production and environment protection. The trade and political relationship between Rwanda and Russia have steadily grown over the years as the European country seeks to compete with the US, China and Western Europe for trade and political influence in Africa.