Category: News

Australia’s government plays a more important role in supporting the economic recovery rather than the central bank, economists said Thursday. Appearing on Bloomberg’s ‘Inside Track’ webinar series, Besa Deda, chief economist at St. George Bank, said there’s now a shift in the policy discussion toward asking what more the government can do to support economic activity....

Asian stocks dropped after a tumble on Wall Street, where worries about a surge in virus cases in multiple U.S. states spurred a flight from riskier assets. The dollar extended gains. Japanese, Australian and Korean shares were all down more than 1%. China and Hong Kong are closed for holidays. Futures on the S&P 500...

Spain’s government is getting a nudge from the country’s central bank to deliver more economic aid and avoid the risk of permanent damage from the coronavirus crisis. Bank of Spain Governor Pablo Hernandez de Cos on Tuesday urged lawmakers to increase the country’s 100 billion euro ($113 billion) state-backed loan guarantee fund, and the extension...

Stocks were mixed on Wednesday and the dollar slipped as investors continued to find appetite for risk assets despite a continuing acceleration in coronavirus cases across the American sun belt. Gains for Hong Kong shares at the open fizzled, while Japan’s Topix slipped. Equities in Seoul outperformed after Kim Jong Un suspended military actions against...

Asian stocks climbed and the yen retreated after President Donald Trump said that the U.S.-China trade deal is intact, easing doubts sparked by reported comments from a senior adviser. Futures on the S&P 500 had opened higher Tuesday, then tumbled over 1% for a time after Trump aide Peter Navarro was quoted saying the trade...

Chinese banks have offered relief on 3.9 trillion yuan ($551 billion) of loans since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic to help struggling small businesses and bolster an economy facing its worst slump in four decades. Lenders have postponed taking principal repayments on 1.44 trillion yuan in loans to almost 800,000 small businesses and pushed...

The current generation of students is at risk of losing $10 trillion in earnings over time due to pandemic-related school closures, the World Bank said. The estimate is based on a five-month school closure, the World Bank said in a report published on Thursday. The virus left 1.6 billion students out of school at the peak of...

Stocks edged lower with U.S. equity futures on Thursday as investors sought fresh catalysts for gains amid a rising numbers of coronavirus infections in some countries. Treasuries advanced. The Stoxx Europe 600 opened in the red, with travel shares and miners leading declines. Contracts on the main U.S. equity benchmarks came off their lows earlier...

Australian unemployment surged in May and the economy shed almost three times as many jobs as forecast amid restrictions to stem the spread of the pandemic. The currency tumbled. The jobless rate climbed to 7.1% from a revised 6.4% in April, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed in Sydney Thursday. Employment plunged by 227,700 in...

There’s one country whose economy looks set to fare better than others when it comes to the fallout of Covid-19: Sweden. In a report on Monday, Capital Economics presented data that give Sweden an irrefutable edge. From peak to trough, Swedish GDP will shrink 8%; in the U.K. and Italy, the contraction is somewhere between...