Business

New Delhi, Apr 30 (PTI) India needs to be cleverer in lifting the lockdown and open up its economy in a "measured way" soon as it does not have the capacity to support people across the spectrum for too long, former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan said on Thursday.

He was deliberating on the economic impact of the COVID-19 in a conversation with former Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The government of Uzbekistan is establishing a nationwide movement billed ‘Kindness and Support’ to help the country weather the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement to Bernama, Uzbekistan’s Embassy in Malaysia said that the initiative – the brainchild of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev – is intended to further ensure the sufficient supply of food and medical facilities to families in need and to temporarily jobless individuals.

PRAGUE, April 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Czech Republic is facing its worst drought in 500 years and some communities could see their supplies run dry, Environment Minister Richard Brabec said.

A map presented by the ministry showed that just 0.1 per cent of the Czech Republic had a normal level of water in the soil in mid-April while extreme drought was found in 75.4 per cent of the country.

Drought conditions have persisted since 2015, as temperatures rise and rainfall dwindles.

29 April 2020; MEMO: Turkey hopes to restart its economy in late May after a sharp slowdown due to measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak, the spokesperson of the ruling AKP party Omer Celik said yesterday.

Meanwhile, the head of a group of Turkish malls announced the shopping centres are preparing to gradually reopen from 11 May, depending on demand from retailers and approval from the health advisory board.

29 April 2020; MEMO: The British government has suffered a major defeat in its attempt to curb the pro-Palestine Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in a long running legal battle with the UK’s largest organisation campaigning for Palestinian human rights.

New Delhi, Apr 28 (PTI) Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday slashed India's growth forecast to 0.2 per cent for the 2020 calendar year from the earlier projection of 2.5 per cent released in March.

Stating that the economic costs of shutdown of the global economy are accumulating rapidly, Moody's in its Global Macro Outlook 2020-21 (April 2020 Update) projected that all G-20 advanced economies would contract by 5.8 per cent in 2020.

New Delhi, Apr 29 (PTI) The Congress on Wednesday attacked the government over the issue of bad loans, accusing it of weakening the entire banking architecture fiscally and imprudently in the name of cleaning the system.

The party was responding to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's tweet on Tuesday night in which she accused the Congress and its leaders of "misleading" people on loan write-offs.

ISTANBUL, Apr 29 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Turkey’s national flag carrier, Turkish Airlines (THY), announced on Tuesday, it extended the suspension of all its domestic and international flights until May 28, over COVID-19 concern.

THY said, in an announcement posted on its website, that, “all flights have been suspended until May 28, to protect public health against the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Bilal Eksi, CEO of the company, called on passengers to be “a little more patient, to win the fight against the virus,” on his Twitter account.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy began 2020 riding the crest of a record-long expansion with every expectation that its 11th year of growth would not be its last.

Then the economy screeched to a sudden halt. And now it’s in free-fall.

On Wednesday, the government will offer a glimpse of how dark the picture has grown and how much worse it could get as the coronavirus pandemic inflicts ruinous damage.

Singapore, Apr 28 (PTI) Singapore will enter into a recession this year due to the coronavirus pandemic and the city-state's economic growth could even dip below the forecast range of -4 to -1 per cent to record its worst-ever contraction, the country's central bank said on Tuesday.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in its latest half-yearly macroeconomic review warned of job losses and lower wages, with significant uncertainty over how long and intense the downturn will be.