Business

09 April 2020; MEMO: The Bahraini government announced yesterday that it will spend 215 million Bahraini dinars ($570 million) on the salaries of 100,000 employees working in the private sector for a period of three months, to mitigate the economic repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Bahraini Minister of Labour and Social Development, Jamil Humeidan, said employers wishing to take advantage of the government’s initiative should register on the General Authority for Social Insurance’s website.

Singapore, Apr 9 (AFP/PTI) Oil prices extended gains Thursday after Russia signalled it was ready to cut output before a key producers' meeting aimed at boosting energy markets as the coronavirus pandemic strangles demand.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate rose 4.6 per cent to USD 26.26 a barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, jumped 2.7 per cent to USD 33.73.

Kochi, Apr 8 (PTI): Kerala Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac on Wednesday flagged concern over high interest rate for market borrowing and urged the Centre to allow the states to directly borrow from the Reserve Bank.

In a Facebook post, Isaac said Kerala on Tuesday received the first tranche of Rs 6,000 crore through the market borrowing for the current fiscal.

BEIJING, Apr 9 (NNN-XINHUA) – China and Switzerland should work together to keep the global industrial and supply chains stable, amid the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, said, in a phone call with his Swiss counterpart, Ignazio Cassis.

Wang said, through arduous efforts made by the Chinese people, China generally brought the domestic epidemic under control, but still faces the risk of the outbreak rebounding, especially the challenges posed by imported cases.

Mumbai, Apr 8 (PTI) The Indian rupee settled 70 paise lower at 76.34 (provisional) against the US dollar on Wednesday amid rise in coronavirus cases in the country and weak domestic equities.

Forex traders said rising brent prices and firm US dollar index also weighed on the local unit.

New Delhi, Apr 8 (PTI) Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday called for providing immediate cash to the poor, while accusing the government of adopting a miserly and negligent approach towards the deprived during the lockdown.

"With unemployment at 23 per cent (CMIE) and a freeze on daily wages/incomes, the government must immediately find the resources and remonetise (give cash to) the poor," he said in a series of tweets.

LONDON, April 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Deprived of customers such as supermarkets, restaurants and schools due to the coronavirus outbreak and resulting lockdown, British farmers are throwing away thousands of litres of milk.

Coffee shops and office blocks, also shut because of COVID-19, are no longer receiving their early morning deliveries, although there has been a hike in the amount of milk being dropped off at people’s homes in time for breakfast, according to the publication FarmingUK.

BERLIN, April 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Authorities in Germany have fallen victim to a multi-million-euro fraud involving masks much needed in the coronavirus pandemic, prosecutors said.

North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state and one of the hardest hit, paid 14.7 million euros for some 10 million masks in March only to discover they did not exist, according to prosecutors in Traunstein, Bavaria.

The German managing director of two distribution companies based in Zurich and Hamburg raised the alarm after realising he had been tricked.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government’s massive effort to nurse the economy through the coronavirus crisis was billed as a send-money-and-don’t-sweat-the-details flood of cash to people and businesses in a $22 trillion system that has ground to a halt.

So far, the checks are not in the mail.

From technological glitches to confusion over the fine points of policy, the delays are mounting. The federal government’s muddled response risks deepening and lengthening a recession already historic for the speed of its onset.

KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Some 25 million jobs are at risk of disappearing due to plummeting demand for air travel amid the COVID-19 crisis, with the bulk of job losses amounting to 11.2 million are in the Asia Pacific, warned the International Air Transport Association (IATA). 

Airlines are calling on governments to provide immediate financial aid to help airlines to remain viable businesses that are able to lead the recovery when the pandemic is contained.