Venezuela / latest iteration of US Treasury OFAC General License allows contracting of advisory services & consulting for sovereign and PdVSA debt, but ... ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actio...

Angola / IMF 2026 Article IV staff report in which the word "swap" is ... never mentioned www.imf.org/en/publicati...

Pakistan / IMF program reviews completed: "Gross reserves stood at $16 billion at end-December, up from $14.5 billion at end-June 2025, and are projected to continue to be rebuilt in the next year and over the medium term." www.imf.org/en/news/arti...

Egypt / WB $1 bn development policy financing: "The new financing backs measures to strengthen the governance of state-owned enterprises and reduce barriers to private investment and growth, including by enforcing fair competition rules." www.worldbank.org/en/news/pres...

Ghana / cocoa marketing: "SSNIT, the state pension fund and a major shareholder, has been reluctant to inject fresh capital into PBC, having not received expected dividends since its initial investment, the company source said." www.cnbcafrica.com/2026/farmers...

DR Congo / IMF Art 4 & program reviews mission: "Related corrective measures, centered on enhancing domestic revenue mobilization and stepping up efforts to streamline non-priority spending, will anchor the supplementary 2026 Budget, ..."

Senegal: "The 2031 maturity was being bid for 59.00 cents on the dollar, having shed 1.245 cents, Tradeweb data showed." www.cnbcafrica.com/2026/senegal...

"Mozambique’s sovereign bond spread over U.S. Treasuries — a widely watched measure of risk for investors — stands at a distressed 1,185 basis points, according to JPMorgan data." www.cnbcafrica.com/2026/why-is-...

Venezuela: "Rodriguez's government recently rejected a proposal from a group of foreign firms seeking to be prepaid for [power sector] initial repairs and spare parts, citing legal obstacles, according to the source." ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusi...

Egypt (Reuters): "The decree raised the price of gas by an average of $2, reaching $14 per million British thermal units for cement factories, $7.75 for iron and steel, non-nitrogen fertilisers and petrochemicals, ..."

“The current projections of technological expansion fractures against the hard rock of geological reality,” says Craig Tindale, an Australian investor and mining expert."

"The Baltic Exchange, which is now owned by [SGX], stirred controversy in March when it told brokers that the TD3C rate should continue to be calculated based on the cost of shipping oil from Ras Tanura — even though shipments had all but ceased due to the war." ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-tan...

Angola / IMF A4 concluded: "The recent surge in oil prices has improved Angola’s access to international markets and is projected to provide a temporary offset to Angola’s declining oil revenues ..."

The latest US Treasury OFAC Iran sanctions update adds to the sanctions list individuals with citizenship through citizenship by investment programs in Dominica and St Kitts & Nevis. ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actio...

NYT obit for Peter Raven: “Peter’s identity with the Missouri Botanical Garden was one of his major achievements,” said David Orr, a professor of environmental studies at Oberlin College in Ohio ..."

WSJ on natural disaster cost impacts on US home insurance: "Damage from hail is also on the rise. Verisk, a catastrophe-modeling firm, estimates potential insured losses from severe thunderstorms of around $60 billion a year—almost double its modeled losses from just four years ago ..."

Love in the IMF-related detail in this NYT article about Heavy Metal Parking Lot. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/27/a...

Gabon: "The reasons for the [debt] audit include the failure to carry out certain projects and to transfer certain funds into the state treasury accounts, the [finance] ministry said." www.msn.com/en-us/money/...

Benin / IMF program reviews staff report: "Following a reconciliation exercise with the IMF and the World Bank, the Beninese authorities recently reclassified several external loans (representing 5.3 percent of GDP at end-2024) that had been transferred to public or semi-public enterprises ..."

Prof Acemoglu live now. www.worldbank.org/en/events/20...

Ghana / cocoa sector liquidity crisis: "The [smuggling] practice is driven by a wide price gap. Ivory Coast is selling cocoa at the equivalent of 1,200 cedis ($107.33) per 64-kg bag, compared with Ghana’s farmgate price of 2,587 cedis." www.cnbcafrica.com/2026/ghana-c...

World Bank conference Measuring Development 2026 (joint with CEGA) theme "Open Science in the Age of AI"; keynote speaker Ted Miguel (Cal) tomorrow (Wednesday) 11:50AM EDT. Webex link available. www.worldbank.org/en/events/20...

US Treasury OFAC sanctions FAQ update ofac.treasury.gov/faqs/1249

St Vincent & the Grenadines / IMF A4 mission statement: "The debt ratio rose by 45 percentage points of GDP since 2019, with about half of the increase occurring in the last two years, reaching 113 percent of GDP in 2025 ... "

The World Bank Land and Property research conference over the next couple of days will include a livestreamed plenary address by Professor Daron Acemoglu on Thursday April 30 at 2pm (US eastern time) titled "Land, Labor, and Economic Development." www.worldbank.org/en/events/20...

World Bank blog post on OPEC from last October based on that edition of the Commodity Markets Outlook: "OPEC has continually adjusted its approach shifting from fixed prices to market-based pricing, adopting flexible production quotas, expanding membership to OPEC+, ..."

Serbia / publication of Eurobond prospectus. Interesting case where Eurobonds are a sizable proportion of total external debt. www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article...

Senegal: "Everybody's left in the dark just on the terms and the tenors and the amounts [of Total Return Swaps]," said Leo Morawiecki of asset manager Aberdeen, who attended the Washington meetings and spoke separately to Reuters." www.msn.com/en-us/politi...

"Malawi’s central bank said on Friday that the gold sold to help fund fuel purchases was bought from local small-scale miners, not taken from its international reserves as reported by a local media group." www.cnbcafrica.com/2026/malawi-...

Egypt / offering circular and final terms for Eurobonds 2029, 2030, 2033. Useful table of external debt and description of central bank swaps. www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article...

Ecuador / IMF EFF 5th review staff report, update on the external financing situation especially regarding China. www.imf.org/en/publicati...

"Malawi has sold gold from its international reserves and asked Afreximbank for a $120 million loan to fund fuel purchases, the Nation Publications media group reported on Wednesday, citing information minister Shadric Namalomba." www.cnbcafrica.com/2026/malawi-...

Senegal (Reuters): "The explanation comes as Senegal faces scrutiny over its use of total return swap-type structures (TRS), which officials have defended as a cheaper alternative to external borrowing ..."

Indonesia (Bloomberg News): “Investors view the [MSCI] postponement as a temporary reprieve and that Indonesia is still on ‘probation,’” said Francis Tan, Asia chief strategist at Indosuez Wealth in Singapore ..."

Bangladesh: "Household help app Sheba XYZ, normally offering services such as plumbing and home repairs, now has a "refuelling driver service", charging up to 245 taka ($2) an hour for users to have someone else wait in line for them." sg.news.yahoo.com/bangladesh-f...

NBER Climate and Nature Finance conference, Oslo, Thursday & Friday this week. Important paper Lost in Transition: Financial Barriers to Green Growth by Philippe Aghion, Antonin Bergeaud, John Van Reenen, Maarten De Ridder. Paper combines elements of directed technical ...

US Treasury OFAC sanctions update, November 5, 2018. ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actio...

"For Thailand, a net energy importer that will host IMF & World ​Bank annual meetings in October, the lingering effects of destroyed Gulf oil & gas infrastructure ‌will keep prices elevated for a long time, said Ekniti Nitithanprapas, deputy [PM] of Thailand." ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/imf-wor...

Guinea-Bissau / IMF 9th and 10th program reviews staff report (this is an IMF program with a military coup in the middle). Interesting tale of a public debt guarantee called because of an individual. It seems that it could be a default on a Mecca pilgrimage loan. www.imf.org/en/publicati...

"The Republic of Congo has told investors it formally requested a fresh financing programme from the International Monetary Fund, three sources told Reuters." www.msn.com/en-us/money/...

"Joint MDB statement on critical minerals: "We will work with governments, the private sector, workers, and communities to foster transparent, standards-based markets, to add value beyond extraction, ..."

"The request for [World Bank] funds was “significant”, Kenya’s central bank governor, Kamau Thugge, told Reuters on Thursday on the sidelines of the IMF World Bank spring meetings, without providing a figure." www.cnbcafrica.com/2026/kenya-r...

Kenya: here's the paragraph & link to the IMF report which has generated some excitement in the Kenyan media as to whether the IMF is saying there is hidden public sector debt. The Fund Africa Dept director described it as a classification issue rather than hidden debt. www.imf.org/en/publicati...

Zimbabwe / IMF staff-monitored program (SMP): "Improving cash planning and public financial management is a central pillar of the program ..."

Venezuela / IMF statement: "Guided by the views of International Monetary Fund (IMF) members representing a majority of the IMF’s total voting power, and consistent with long standing practice, ..."

"Malawi and Mozambique could default this year, Cowan (Citi) said, citing a steep weakening of their respective currencies, which could push their debt stocks and payments due on hard-currency lending into unsustainable territory." www.cnbcafrica.com/2026/citi-se...

Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable (cochairs USA #G20, World Bank, IMF) / practitioners manual on liability management operations (LMOs) with credit enhancement (CE). #WBGMeetings documents.worldbank.org/en/publicati...

Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable updated sovereign debt restructuring playbook for country authorities. #WBGMeetings documents.worldbank.org/en/publicati...

US Treasury #G20 / World Bank / IMF Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable (GDSR) 6th co-chairs report #WBGMeetings "Looking ahead, GSDR Principals supported advancing work at the GSDR & in other fora on: • Stepping up support for countries with a strong reform agenda & sustainable debt, ..."

Gabon / Trafigura: "Under the agreement, Trafigura will provide the prepayment to [] Gabon in exchange for the future delivery of crude oil over a seven-year term. Trafigura will act as exclusive offtaker of [] Gabon’s Profit Oil for the duration of the agreement." www.trafigura.com/news-and-ins...