Business

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 28 (PTI): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has drawn the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the action of Karnataka police in blocking a key state highway ferrying essential commodites to the state and urged him to immediately intervene in the matter

In a letter to Modi, the Chief Minister pointed out that the Thalassery-Coorg State Highway 30, connecting Kerala with Coorg in Karnataka via Veerajapetta, was a key highway on which cargo lorries ferry essential commodites to Kerala.

TUNIS, March 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) —Employees at a Tunisian factory are churning out 50,000 face masks a day and other protective medical gear after opting to go into lockdown at work.

The 150 workers, mainly women, have isolated themselves at the Consomed factory for a month.

They were spurred on by patriotism as the country battles coronavirus, their manager Hamza Alouini said.

Employee Khawla Rebhi said she greatly missed her family, but her colleagues’ good cheer provided some compensation.

TRIPOLI, March 28 (NNN-XINHUA) — Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) said that the suspension of oil exports after the closure of oil fields and ports has caused a loss of more than 3.6 billion U.S. dollars so far.

“The current levels of production are 96,702 barrels a day. Forced restriction of production has resulted in financial losses exceeding 3.6 billion dollars since Jan. 17, 2020. These are funds that could have been spent on medical supplies and equipment to help all Libyans deal with COVID-19,” NOC said in a statement.

ISTANBUL, Mar 28 (NNN-ANADOLU) — Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that, all international flights would be cancelled, as part of the fight against COVID-19.

Announcing new measures against the spread of the outbreak during a televised live broadcast, Erdogan also noted that, inter-city travel across the country would be subject to the permission of governors in each province.

“A flexible working system will be implemented with minimum personnel both in private and public sectors,” Erdogan said.

SINGAPORE, Mar 28 (NNN-CNA) – It would be “a significant challenge” to hold the Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) in early June, in view of the COVID-19 outbreak, Singapore Defence Minister, Ng Eng Hen said.

The SLD is held in Singapore in late May or early June, by London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). The think tank announced that it would call off this year’s SLD, scheduled for June 5-7.

WASHINGTON, March 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The coronavirus pandemic has driven the global economy into a downturn that will require massive funding to help developing nations, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said.

“It is clear that we have entered a recession” that will be worse than in 2009 following the global financial crisis, she said in an online press briefing.

With the worldwide economic “sudden stop,” Georgieva said the fund’s estimate “for the overall financial needs of emerging markets is $2.5 trillion.”

27 Mar 2020; MEMO: Following the global outbreak of the highly contagious coronavirus, a Palestinian sewing company is producing surgical masks and other protective gear instead of clothing, reports The Times of Israel.

UniPal 2000 factory in the Karni Industrial Zone in Gaza City is a merger of four sewing factories with a capital of $1.2 million and 200 workers.

Harare, Mar 27 (AFP/PTI) Zimbabwe has re-introduced the use of foreign currency for domestic transactions in what was seen as a bid to tap into private forex savings as the country gears up for the battle against the novel coronavirus.

In a statement the central bank governor John Mangudya said the move is part of "measures to mitigate the devastating impact of COVID-19 on the Zimbabwean society and the economy".

Moscow, Mar 27 (AFP/PTI) The Russian government has ordered all cafes and restaurants to close for a week from Saturday to stem the spread of the coronavirus infection.

Russian regions are to "halt the activities of public food service organisations," except for delivery services, a government decree said on Friday.

New Delhi, Mar 27 (PTI) Moody's Investors Service on Friday slashed its estimate of India's GDP growth during 2020 calendar year to 2.5 per cent, from an earlier estimate of 5.3 per cent and said the coronavirus pandemic will cause unprecedented shock to the global economy.

The estimate for 2020 compares to 5 per cent economic growth in 2019.