China’s economy shrinks for first time in decades on coronavirus hit April 17, 2020 China’s economy shrank for the first time in nearly three decades of records in the first quarter as the coronavirus pandemic hit spending and production. Gross domestic product (GDP) fell 6.8 per cent in the quarter ended March compared to the same period the previous year, official data showed today, slightly larger than the 6.5 [...]
Compassionate capitalism can underpin our coronavirus recovery April 17, 2020 This Covid-19 coronavirus crisis could all be over by autumn. Or by this time next year. We simply do not know. What we do know, however, is that we will need to think carefully and radically about how this country is going to recover from the devastation left behind by the coronavirus pandemic. This pandemic [...]
FTSE 100 stabilises after dire US jobless claims data April 16, 2020 The FTSE 100 stabilised today despite the news that another 5.2m US workers will become unemployed, taking the total number of jobless claims in the last month to over 22m. London’s blue chip index managed a 0.6 per cent rise, despite an earlier wobble, with traders sanguine despite the extraordinary figures. The gains, which left [...]
US stocks fall after dire jobless claims data April 16, 2020 US stocks have fallen in the wake of yet more shocking employment data and as states and the federal government debate lifting coronavirus measures. The Dow Jones index was down one per cent in early trading. The S&P 500 had dropped 0.5 per cent but the Nasdaq was 0.2 per cent higher. Stocks were volatile [...]
Coronavirus: More than 5m Americans made new jobless claims last week April 16, 2020 The number of Americans making new jobless claims topped 5.2m last week, official figures have shown, as the coronavirus crisis crashes the economy and sends unemployment skyrocketing. The figure compares to 6.6m new claims last week. It takes the number of people who have made new jobless claims in the last month to an astounding [...]
UK must beef up coronavirus economic response, says think tank April 16, 2020 The UK government must take “further radical policy steps” to tackle the economic fallout from coronavirus, a think tank has said, amid huge uncertainty over the length of the outbreak. The Resolution Foundation praised the government’s response so far, which includes £330bn of lending and a scheme to pay furloughed workers’ wages. Yet it said [...]
One in four UK firms temporarily closed due to coronavirus April 16, 2020 A quarter of UK firms have closed or paused trading as coronavirus ravages the economy, new figures have shown. For those businesses still open, on average more than 20 per cent of staff have been furloughed using the government’s job retention scheme, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. The figures, which cover the period [...]
Coronavirus: UK banks expect surge of business loan defaults April 16, 2020 The UK’s banks and building societies expect to see a surge of businesses defaulting on their loans in the coming months, survey data has shown, as coronavirus sends the economy into a deep recession. Small businesses are expected to be the worst hit, with expectations of defaults hitting their highest since the financial crisis for [...]
Coronavirus: Global stocks set to sink as economic reality bites April 16, 2020 Global stocks were set to fall today as “ugly” economic data and weak bank earnings suggest a recession is on the horizon. Asian stocks dropped today, with Japan’s Nikkei falling 1.2 per cent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 0.7 per cent. That came after Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citi all saw [...]
Coronavirus: Governments face huge but necessary debt increases, says IMF April 15, 2020 The “unprecedented” government spending to tackle coronavirus and its economic effects will send deficits past their post-financial crisis levels and cause debt levels to balloon, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said today. The IMF backed huge levels of spending, however, saying “a sizable increase in deficits this year is necessary and appropriate”. It said government [...]