Wednesday May 25, 2011

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Jessica Hannah

Making headlines:

France's Finance Minister is set to declare that she wants to be the next head of the International Monetary Fund even though big emerging economies have decried Europe's "obsolete" grip on the top job. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa sharply criticized European officials in a joint statement for suggesting the next IMF head should automatically be a European, a convention that dates back to the founding of the agency at the end of the Second World War. However, the countries known as the BRICs did not suggest any alternative candidate to France's Christine Lagarde, who appears to have enough support in Europe, the United States and China to defeat any potential challengers.

The number of restrictive trade measures taken by G20 economies increased over the past six months, a new monitoring report for the period from October 2010 to April 2011 has highlighted. New restrictions on imports introduced by the economies over the review period covered around 0,6% of total G20 imports, up on the 0,3% reported for the previous six months. Export restrictions were also imposed mainly on food products and some minerals. These measures included export taxes and quotas designed to secure domestic supply and address resource depletion.

South Africa would need to devote more resources and policy support to science and technology if the country wanted to achieve its ambitions of building a knowledge-based economy, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said. She said in her budget vote speech that funding of science and technology should be improved and that postgraduate study and senior researchers should receive more support. The Department of Science and Technology received R4,4-billion to boost research and development in South Africa in 2011, much of which would be spent on developing human capital in the sector, as well as on the upgrade and expansion of necessary infrastructure.

Also making headlines:
South Africa's central bank said that the inflation outlook had deteriorated markedly and it would not hesitate to act to quell price pressures, although it gave no clues as to when it might start raising rates.
The Tunisian government confirmed the date of July 24 for a first election since the overthrow of former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January.
And, the African National Congress in Gauteng is "disappointed" over its performance in Indian and coloured townships around Johannesburg, provincial secretary David Makhura said.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.