United Kingdom

LONDON (Reuters) - Global growth in new renewable energy capacity will experience its first annual decline in 20 years this year amid the coronavirus pandemic but is expected to pick up next year, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday.

The world is set to build fewer wind turbines, solar plants and other installations that produce renewable electricity this year as energy demand has been reduced across commercial and industrial sectors and logistics issues delay projects.

LONDON (Reuters) - Expectations for second- and third-quarter corporate profits are deteriorating further in Europe, despite a gradual easing across the continent of lockdowns aimed at curbing the coronavirus pandemic, Refinitiv data showed on Wednesday.

Companies listed on the pan-European STOXX 600 are now expected to report a decline of 48.4% in second-quarter earnings, down from a drop of 46.7% forecast the week before.

For the third quarter, analyst expectations are now set for a 35.3% fall in earnings, versus 35.1% a week ago.

LONDON, May 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in Britain soared to its highest level since 1996 in April, the first full month of the government’s coronavirus lockdown, data published on Tuesday showed.

The claimant count rose by 856,500 – the biggest ever month-on-month leap – to 2.1 million, a 69 per cent increase, the Office for National Statistics said.

LONDON/HONG KONG/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China is urging domestic companies to look at listing in London, several sources told Reuters, as the country aims to revive deals under a Stock Connect scheme and strengthen overseas ties in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

The Shanghai-London Stock Connect scheme, which began operating last year, aims to build links between Britain and China, help Chinese companies expand their investor base and give mainland investors access to UK-listed companies.

LONDON (Reuters) - Risk managers expect a prolonged global recession as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, a report by the World Economic Forum showed on Tuesday.

Two-thirds of the 347 respondents to the survey - carried out in response to the outbreak - put a lengthy contraction in the global economy top of their list of concerns for the next 18 months.

Half of risk managers expected bankruptcies and industry consolidation, the failure of industries to recover and high levels of unemployment, particularly among the young.

LONDON (Reuters) - The United Kingdom on Tuesday announced a new post-Brexit tariff regime to replace the European Union’s external tariff, maintaining a 10% tariff on cars and levies on agricultural products such as lamb, beef, and poultry.

The British government said the new regime, known as UK Global Tariff (UKGT), would be simpler and cheaper than the EU’s Common External Tariff (EU CET).

LONDON (Reuters) - Europe’s top oil and gas companies have diverted a larger share of their cash to green energy projects since the coronavirus outbreak in a bet the global health crisis will leave a long-term dent in fossil fuel demand, according to a Reuters review of company statements and interviews with executives.

LONDON, May 17 (Xinhua) -- Nigel Adams, Britain's minister of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development, said it is important for Britain and China to cooperate closely in the battle against COVID-19 pandemic.

Adams made the remarks during a telephone conversation with Chinese Ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming on Friday. The two exchanged views on China-Britain relationship and joint response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

LONDON, May 17. /TASS/: Russia’s businessman Alisher Usmanov has gained one notch to take the seventh spot in Britain’s Rich List 2020 top ten rating released by the Sunday Times newspaper on Saturday.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted on Sunday that there was public frustration with his government’s measures to ease the coronavirus lockdown following widespread criticism of the new rules, which he admitted were more complex.

As a poll for the Observer newspaper indicated growing dissatisfaction with Johnson’s handling of the crisis, he wrote in the Mail on Sunday paper: “I understand that people will feel frustrated with some of the new rules.”