LAST WEEK'S TOP STORIES ON FTW ON ONLINE

Africa set for growth in 2014/2015 Africa is set to see economic growth of 4.8 percent this year and further expansion to 5.7 percent on the continent in 2015, according to the annual ‘Economic Perspectives in Africa’ report. Has Swaziland lost its Agoa status? Swaziland has failed to meet a deadline to fulfil regulations allowing it duty-free trade with the United States and the country may now officially be excluded from the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa), according to national press. New law protects against unscrupulous lenders President Jacob Zuma has signed into law the National Credit Amendment Act, 2014. The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, says this will amongst other things offer more protection to consumers against irresponsible/reckless lending practices. He said it was unacceptable that 50% of about 21 million credit-active consumers’ records were impaired. Maersk doubles its profits for Q1 Maersk Line reported a $454m profit for the first quarter of 2014 – more than double the $204m for the same period in 2013. SA and Japan in talks over fruit imports A delegation from Fruit South Africa and DAFF recently met with the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries to discuss possible changes to the cold treatment of fruit in order to increase the scope of exports to Japan to include more cold sensitive fruit. World Bank issues warning over Zim’s mining potential Zimbabwe could unlock between US$5bn and $15bn in mining investment potential by 2018, but only if President Robert Mugabe’s government addresses the regulatory and operational uncertainty and infrastructure bottlenecks that are holding back growth in the sector, said the World Bank on Friday.