Business activity in the euro zone expanded at its fastest pace in 15 years in June as lockdowns eased, according to the latest Purchasing Managers’ Index.

As lockdowns eased and the sun shone, the euro zone economy boomed.

That’s according to new figures out on Wednesday (June 23).

The closely watched composite Purchasing Managers’ Index for June jumped to 59.2, up from 57.1 the month before.

That’s well above the 50 point mark that indicates rising activity, and its highest reading in 15 years.

The rebound looks increasingly broad based.

After an earlier upturn in manufacturing, services are now booming too.

The index for that sector beat forecasts with a jump to 58.

Price pressures now look like the big worry.

Survey compiler IHS Markit says firms are struggling to meet demand for raw materials and staff.

That saw the input prices index for manufacturers hit its highest level since the index was first compiled in 1997.

Markit says further upward pressure on inflation looks inevitable over the coming months.

Japan’s Nissan Motor Co will adjust production at several factories next month due to the global chip shortage, three sources with direct knowledge of the plan told Reuters.

Japan’s Nissan will adjust production at several factories next month due to the global chip shortage.

Three sources with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters of the plan on Tuesday (July 22).

Japan’s third-largest automaker will reportedly halt production at a factory in the east of the country for a total of three days in July, and will idle another plant in the south for two days.

The sources added that another factory will cut production hours.

A spokesperson for Nissan said it would be “adjusting production” and “taking necessary actions to ensure recovery”.

Like other automakers, Nissan has been grappling with a worldwide chip supply crunch, which it says will likely affect the production of 500,000 vehicles this year.

At its AGM on Tuesday (July 22), the company said it was seeking to minimise the negative impact of the shortage.

South African consumer price inflation accelerated to a 30-month high of 5.2% year on year in May, moving above the midpoint of the central bank’s target range for the first time since Pandemic struck.

The jump in headline inflation, from 4.4% in April, was in line with forecasts of economists polled by Reuters and the highest reading since November 2018, according to Statistics South Africa.

Food and fuel prices were major contributors to the higher rate in May, data from the statistics agency showed on Wednesday.

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) tries to keep inflation between 3% and 6%, and it regularly talks about where it is in relation to the midpoint of that band.

Despite building price pressures, economists are not predicting the SARB will raise rates when it next meets in July. When Reuters last polled analysts in May survey medians suggested the bank would keep its repo rate at 3.5% throughout 2021, sticking to an accommodative monetary policy stance.

On a month-on-month basis, the consumer price index rose 0.1% in May, as expected, from 0.7% in the previous month.

Core inflation, which excludes prices of food, non-alcoholic beverages, fuel and energy, increased to 3.1% year on year in May, from 3.0% in April. In month-on-month terms, core inflation was at 0.0% from 0.3% previously.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Tuesday it has secured sufficient financing pledges to allow it to provide comprehensive debt relief to Sudan, clearing a final hurdle towards wider relief on external debt of at least $50 billion.

More than 100 IMF member countries have pledged to provide more than $1.415 billion in financing which will enable the clearance of Sudan’s arrears to the IMF, the IMF said in a statement.

Sudan is emerging from decades of economic sanctions and isolation under ousted former President Omar al-Bashir.

It had built up huge arrears on its debt, but has made rapid progress towards having much of it forgiven under the IMF and World Bank’s Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) scheme, which would reopen access to badly needed cheap international financing.

“Sudan is now one step closer to reaching the HIPC Decision Point, a landmark which will significantly reduce Sudan’s total debt and allow access to fresh funds and new investments critical to boost growth and fight poverty,” said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in the statement.

A transitional military-civilian power-sharing government is trying to pull the country out of a deep economic crisis with inflation at over 300% and shortages of basic goods fuelled by a lack of foreign currency reserves.

In order to reach the “decision point” that would unlock the HIPC process later in June, Sudan recently cleared its arrears to the World Bank and the African Development Bank with bridge loans from Western states.

The country also has gone through rapid economic reforms, including on Tuesday when it eliminated its customs exchange rate, used to calculate import duties, as the final step in a devaluation of its local currency.

New legislation and regulatory changes in Egypt are set to unleash a surge in new fintech investments and change the way the country’s largely unbanked citizens do business, industry players say.

Fintech innovation in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country, has trailed other emerging market powerhouses such as China, India, Kenya and Indonesia, a situation the industry hopes the new legal environment will change.

One innovator is MNT NV, a microfinance lending and payments company with more than a million active customers and a 21.7% market share. It has just completed a share swap to take over fintech company Halan Inc, Mounir Nakhla, a cofounder of both firms, told Reuters. The deal had not previously been reported.

MNT-Halan is Egypt’s first private non-bank company to be licensed by the central bank to operate a digital wallet, a mobile telephone application that allows consumers, vendors, lenders and borrowers to transfer money, pay bills, buy goods on instalment, secure loans and make other transactions.

MNT is marrying its large base of unbanked users with electronic technology, hoping to place itself at the forefront of a digital transformation.

“What we’re going to do will be revolutionary, I believe. We have the reach, the technology and the capacity to scale,” said Nakhla, who created the first of a series of start-ups in 2010. MNT has attracted $50 million from venture capital funds and other investors, and hopes to raise more capital soon.

MNT will also leverage more than a hundred warehouses and distribution points it has around Egypt and a fleet of vehicles to deliver products ordered online the same day.

Private investors have been reluctant to put money in Egypt in recent years due to an expansion of state ownership in the economy, and it remains to be seen how keen fintech investors will be.