Zambia’s central bank this week held its key lending rate at 9.75%, citing improved growth prospects, despite a marginal spike in inflation, Bariyo reports. Sign up here to have This Week on the Frontiers delivered to your inbox. Zambia is grappling with sluggish growth, caused in part by lower-than-expected rains in its southern corn-growing heartlands, and rising government debt. Mark Green, the head of the US Agency for International Development, was in Bangladesh this week, primarily to discuss the country’s response to the Rohingya crisis. But his government faces a mounting threat from something he can’t control: creditors targeting the oil shipments that provide nearly all the country’s foreign income, Kejal Vyas and Rebecca Elliott write.

Source: Wall Street Journal May 19, 2018 13:30 UTC