February 17, 2014
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:

Power, steel and cement indicators suggest that China's economy isn’t that buoyant.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says the Central African Republic peacekeeping operation will last longer than expected.

And, African nations form a Group of 5 to work on the Sahel’s security and development.

 

The big debate about how fast China's economy will grow this year can find some answers in the real world, where signs suggest the growth giant is slowly but surely losing its fizz.

From falling power consumption to record-low steel prices, a clutch of indicators show sluggish investment and domestic demand are weighing on China's $9.4-trillion economy. This is a worrying sign for some economists who are cutting their GDP forecasts for 2014 – which is unusual so early in the year.

Rising interest rates and restrictions that stop wasteful spending by Chinese governments have depressed investment to at least a decade-low, making it perhaps the single biggest drag on the world's number 2 economy.

The implication is big, especially since investment accounted for over half of China's 7.7% economic growth last year. Experts believe growth may sag in coming months towards 7%, a rate bound to disconcert investors and even some policymakers in Beijing worried that the economy is braking too hard.

 

France's military operation in the Central African Republic will last longer than initially planned because the situation in the country is worse than anticipated, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Saturday.

Le Drian said the mission would be longer than expected because the level of hatred and violence was more important than had been imagined.

France said on Friday it would send another 400 troops to help combat the crisis in the African country as UN chief Ban Ki-moon pleaded for more swift, robust international help to stop sectarian violence that could turn into a genocide.

Almost a million people, or a quarter of the population of the former French colony, have been displaced by fighting which erupted after the mostly Muslim Seleka rebel group seized power in March last year in the majority Christian country.

The leaders of Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso agreed on Sunday to create a regional organisation to strengthen cooperation on development and security in the Sahel region.

Mauritania will host the headquarters of the new grouping, dubbed the G5 Sahel, and its President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz will initially take the chair, according to a statement issued after a meeting in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott.

The Sahel is an arid belt of land south of the Sahara desert that runs across Africa from Mauritania in the west to Sudan in the east.

The closing communique said ministers from the five nations would work together to identify priority investment projects and seek sources of international financing, focusing on areas such as infrastructure, food security, agriculture and pastoralism.

Also making headlines:
 

Egypt's deposed President Mohamed Mursi appeared in court on Sunday on charges of conspiring with foreign groups to commit terrorist acts in Egypt.

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan dismisses an army officer's plot to 'rescue' the country.
 

Riot police have tried to stop a meeting of Burundi's junior coalition party as the political crisis in the tiny East African country deepens.
 

And, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni says he will sign a controversial anti-gay bill into law, warning that those who promoted homosexuality would be dealt with harshly.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.