BEIRUT/PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday gave Lebanese politicians until the end of October to start delivering on reforms, saying financial aid would be withheld and sanctions imposed further down the line if corruption gets in the... More »
MADRID (Reuters) – The euro zone economy has experienced a strong recovery in the third quarter even though the most recent incoming data in August have been less robust, European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos said on Tuesday. “In the third quart... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron marked Lebanon’s centenary on Tuesday by planting a cedar tree, the emblem of the Middle East country that is collapsing under the weight of a crippling economic crisis. In his second trip to Lebanon in less ... More »
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s official interest rates and the average cost of servicing its public debt have never been lower, but investors are becoming worried that the government could face a funding crisis next year. The premium that investors demand to le... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Whoever succeeds Shinzo Abe as Japan’s prime minister will be confronted with growing signs that the job market is deteriorating in an economy laid low by the coronavirus pandemic. Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga is emerging as a fron... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Mainland China reported 10 new COVID-19 cases on Aug. 31, down from 17 reported a day earlier, the country’s health authority said on Tuesday. The National Health Commission said in a statement that all new cases were imported infections in... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – Countries with significant active spread of coronavirus must prevent amplifying events, as opening up without the virus being under control would be a “recipe for disaster”, the World Health Organization said on Monday. WHO director-general ... More »
BENGALURU (Reuters) – Funds recommended equity holdings be trimmed to the lowest in over four years in August, despite record-breaking gains by world stocks, as the pandemic drags on and new data suggest the nascent economic rebound is stalling, Reuters polls ... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Tuesday it agreed with the United States to continue pushing forward the implementation of the bilateral Phase 1 trade deal reached earlier this year during a call between the two countries’ top trade negotiators. Vice Premier... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan was hit by its biggest economic slump on record in the second quarter as the coronavirus pandemic emptied shopping malls and crushed demand for cars and other exports, bolstering the case for bolder policy action to prevent a deeper rec... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon should be locked down for two weeks after a spike in COVID-19 infections, the caretaker government’s health minister was quoted as saying on Monday. “We declare today a state of general alert and we need a brave decision to close (th... More »
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand’s Finance Minister Grant Robertson said on Monday that the new wage subsidy scheme is forecast to cost about NZ$510 million ($333.80 million) and cover 470,000 jobs. The scheme was announced last week after New Zealand locked... More »
(Reuters) – British Trade Secretary Liz Truss pledged to fight U.S tariffs on Scotch whisky, calling them “unacceptable and unfair” in an op-ed in the Telegraph on Sunday. “I will fight to consign these unfair tariffs to the bin of history”, she wrote (AIR.PA)... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – European shares rose on Monday as industrial activity in China gained strength, another sign of recovery from the coronavirus pandemic that added to hopes the global economy would also return to health. The broader Euro STOXX 600 rose 0.6%, ... More »
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s annual urban consumer price inflation fell to 4.2% in July from 5.6% in June, the central statistics agency CAPMAS said on Monday. Month on month inflation increased to 0.4% in July from 0.1% in June mainly on the back of an increase ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The United States should implement another support package to ensure workers can stay safely at home while the novel coronavirus continues to spread, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said in an interview with CBS News released on Sunday... More »
BOSTON/CHICAGO, August 3 (Reuters) – A decline in U.S. Treasury yields over recent weeks has investors eyeing the approach of an unusual phenomenon – the entire U.S. yield curve sinking below 1%. Policymakers are looking to position the country to recover once... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The location of TikTok owner ByteDance’s headquarters is a commercial decision for the company to make, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday, responding to a report that the firm could move to London. “It would... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Irish peacemaker John Hume was a “political giant” who did so much to help bring an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday. Hume, a key Roman Catholic architect of Northern Ireland’s 1998... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s finance ministry said on Monday it would scrap an agreement with Cyprus aimed at avoiding double taxation after talks to modify the deal failed, and that legal changes would make it more profitable for people to transfer money back ... More »
LONDON/TOKYO (Reuters) – Euro zone manufacturing activity expanded modestly last month, its first growth since early 2019, and Asia’s pain eased as the contraction slowed in export-reliant nations, adding to hopes the sector is emerging from the hit of the cor... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s monetary policy will be more flexible and targeted in the second half of the year, the central bank said on Monday. China will actively and steadily push forward yuan internationalisation and capital account convertibility, the Peop... More »
SINGAPORE/LONDON (Reuters) – Oil prices edged higher on Monday helped by a weak dollar and expected U.S. stimulus measures but gains were capped by rising global coronavirus cases and tensions between the United States and China. Brent crude LCOc1 rose 32 cent... More »
LONDON/BENGALURU (Reuters) – Gold’s record rally is moving tantalisingly close to the psychologically key $2,000 level, powered by investors seeking cover from COVID-19’s global economic toll, as reflected in dollar weakness, faltering stocks and U.S.-China tr... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Euro zone companies continued to tap bank credit at a brisk pace in June even as the economy reopened after three months of coronavirus-related lockdown, data from the European Central Bank showed on Monday. Lending to non-financial corpo... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – The danger to the euro zone economy from the coronavirus pandemic is not yet over, European Central Bank board member Fabio Panetta told La Repubblica, adding that he saw no need to make any tweaks to the bank’s massive asset purchase progra... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Monday urged Britain to avoid making further steps down wrong path after reports that it was poised to suspend an extradition treaty for Chinese-ruled Hong Kong. Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin made the remark during a daily... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Investors pumped money into riskier bonds and equity funds, BofA’s weekly fund flow statistics showed on Friday, as unprecedented stimulus measures helped offset worries about rising COVID-19 case numbers in the United States. The policy sup... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A growth spurt in the balance sheets of the world’s biggest central banks has crested in recent weeks, drawing warnings from investors that any signs of backpedaling on stimulus will jolt financial markets and strangle economic recovery. The... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank will use its stimulus firepower fully even as the euro zone economy shows some signs of rebounding from its pandemic-induced recession, ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Thursday. Tackling the biggest econo... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank expects a pending European Union stimulus scheme to favour grants over loans in the funding mechanism it uses to help kick-start the bloc’s economies, bank president Christine Lagarde said on Thursday. Leaders of... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Euro zone banks maintained relatively easy access to credit for firms in the second quarter with the backing of government guarantees, but they will likely tighten credit standards in the following three months, the European Central Bank ... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The German economy is rebounding from a pandemic-induced slump after hitting bottom last month, a real-time indicator developed by the country’s central bank showed on Monday. Launched in the wake of coronavirus outbreak, the Bundesbank’s... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s retail inflation picked up in June, pushed by price increases for some food and fuel items, but economists said the central bank could still ease rates because of concerns about economic slowdown caused by lockdown. Annual retail ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British minister Oliver Dowden will make a statement to parliament on Huawei some time after 1130 GMT on Tuesday, the opposition Labour Party said on Twitter. Britain is set to ban Huawei from Britain’s 5G network in a landmark decision that... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will place a “huge priority” on national security when considering Chinese telecoms firm Huawei’s role in the country’s 5G network, justice minister Robert Buckland said on Monday. “National security comes first … and I know that the... More »
(Reuters) – China’s Huawei Technologies has requested a meeting with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to work out a deal to delay its potential removal from the country’s 5G phone network, the Sunday Times newspaper reported on Sunday. The Chinese telecoms equi... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – France will back Spanish Economy Minister Nadia Calvino for the presidency of the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday, a stance echoed by France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Dri... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s decision to allow China’s Huawei to play a limited role in building its 5G network is not “fixed in stone” and is being reviewed following the imposition of U.S. sanctions, culture minister Oliver Dowden said on Monday. Britain gra... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British finance minister Rishi Sunak will try to restart the country’s economy by giving homebuyers a tax break and cutting value-added tax for pubs, restaurants and other hospitality firms, The Times newspaper reported. Sunak is due to anno... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain hopes to permit outdoor and socially distanced performances at cultural venues, minister Oliver Dowden said on Monday, after announcing a nearly $2 billion investment in the arts. “I want all our cultural institutions to return to no... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank is lowering the bar for bank mergers in the euro zone, hoping to encourage an elusive wave of consolidation in a sector plagued by low profits and unresolved issues inherited from the last financial crisis. In a ... More »
HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s parliament passed national security legislation for Hong Kong on Tuesday, setting the stage for the most radical changes to the former British colony’s way of life since it returned to Chinese rule 23 years ago. Details of... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain urgently needs to see the legislation China passed regarding Hong Kong to determine whether it has breached the joint declaration and then will set out its next steps, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday. “De... More »
(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve’s promise in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic to flood the U.S. economy with trillions of dollars seemed like the proverbial central bank bazooka. It has been more of a trickle in practice, with activity outside the U.... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A fresh batch of grim economic data kept the euro and the pound under pressure on Tuesday as sentiment faltered amid fears new COVID-19 hot spots across the world might jeopardise the swift recovery from the pandemic investors are hoping for... More »
LEICESTER, England (Reuters) – Britain has imposed a stringent lockdown on the English city of Leicester following a local flare-up of the novel coronavirus, overshadowing Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s attempts to nudge the country back to normality. The Unit... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that Britain needed to protect its critical national infrastructure from “hostile state vendors” when deciding what role China’s Huawei should play in the country’s 5G network. Britain is taking a... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – A string of positive economic indicators in the euro zone confirm that a recovery is on its way but the bloc may still need years to reach pre-crisis levels of activity, European Central Bank policymaker Klaas Knot said on Thursday. “I wo... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – BlackRock’s Investment Institute said on Tuesday it was “warming up” to European assets following what it called the eurozone’s “impressive” efforts to tackle the coronavirus. The research arm of the world’s biggest fund manager said two fac... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s capital will see a “cliff-like” drop in new cases in a recent outbreak of the novel coronavirus by the end of this week with efforts to cut chains of transmission underway, a disease control expert said. The city of more than 20 mil... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura on Monday discussed the importance of free trade for a world economic recovery with New Zealand’s Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker, Nishimura said. Parker and Nishimura also talked... More »
(Reuters) – White House adviser Kevin Hassett will leave the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump this summer, Axios reported on Monday, citing two officials. Hassett had returned as an adviser earlier this year to help the Trump administration tackle... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China reported 18 new coronavirus cases for June 21, 9 of which were in the capital Beijing, the National Health Commission said on Monday. This compared with 26 confirmed cases a day earlier, 22 of which were in Beijing. Local authorities ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve said on Monday it had opened registration for lenders interested in participating in its Main Street Lending Program, launching arguably the most complex program undertaken yet by the U.S. central bank to help keep the ... More »
(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve on Monday launched its latest life raft for U.S. businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. Administered by the Boston Fed, the Main Street Lending Program will offer up to $600 billion in loans through participating lenders t... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar was slightly lower in North American morning trade on Monday, stabilizing after a move higher overnight on a sell-off in risk assets over rising fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections. The dollar index =USD, which... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The United Kingdom’s COVID-19 death toll neared 52,000 on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally of official data sources that highlighted the country’s place as one of the worst hit in the world. New data for England and Wales brought the to... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank is contemplating whether to extend a request to banks to hold off on dividend payments and share buybacks, and hopes to provide more clarity in July, Andrea Enria, its chief bank supervisor said on Tuesday. The E... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s economy looks like it has started to pick up after the impact of the novel coronavirus and measures to halt its spread, Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson said on Tuesday. “If you summarize, there are a number of indicators tha... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan and the United Kingdom agreed to start negotiations for a swift agreement on an economic partnership to secure business continuity for both nations, Japan’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi welcomed i... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – About 64,000 more people than usual have died in the United Kingdom during this year’s coronavirus pandemic, an expert from the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday. Epidemiologists say excess mortality – deaths from all causes tha... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N) disclosed Monday it will no longer offer facial recognition or analysis software in a letter to Congress calling for new efforts to pursue justice and racial equity, new Chief Executive Office... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Scientists in Sweden are hoping an alpaca named Tyson can help deliver a knockout blow in the fight to develop a treatment or vaccine against the novel coronavirus that has killed nearly 400,000 people worldwide. After immunizing Tyson, a... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The European Central Bank beefed up its bond-buying programme on Thursday in its latest effort to support a euro zone economy pummelled by more than two months of shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic. HIGHLIGHTS: ** ECB increases size o... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank expects the euro zone to suffer a deep recession this year, with losses only partly made up in 2021 as pandemic-related restrictions weigh on output for an extended period. In what ECB President Christine Lagarde... More »
(Reuters) – The European Central Bank beefed up its bond-buying programme on Thursday in its latest effort to support a euro zone economy pummelled by more than two months of shutdowns to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. Following are highlights of ECB Pres... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China will promote the resumption of the tourism, culture and sports sectors, a top-level meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang said on Thursday, state radio reported. Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china/chin... More »
(The author is editor-at-large for finance and markets at Reuters News. Any views expressed here are his own) By Mike Dolan LONDON (Reuters) – Many households have built up a stash of savings during the coronavirus lockdowns of the past three months — and how ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The coronavirus crisis may have dealt a lethal blow to the idea that the euro could one day replace the dollar as the world’s preferred currency, by exposing euro zone frailties and cementing the U.S. Fed’s role as global lender of last reso... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The United Kingdom’s COVID-19 official death toll has reached nearly 43,000, underlining the country’s status as the worst-hit in Europe and raising more questions about Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s handling of the crisis. New official fig... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Investors are bearish on stocks, especially riskier assets, and expect a slower economic recovery as the risk of a second wave of infections from the novel coronavirus persists, a BofA fund manager survey showed. World stocks have bounced ba... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – After a 78-day delay, China’s parliament begins its annual session this week and is expected to unveil stimulus measures to spur an economy battered by the coronavirus as leaders grapple with problems from surging unemployment to worsening ... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China is expected to stand pat on its benchmark lending rate on Wednesday, after the central bank kept medium-term funding cost for financial institutions steady last week, a Reuters survey of traders and analysts found. Thirty-four respon... More »
TOKYO/FRANKFURT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After years of applying plenty of stick to commercial lenders unhappy with negative interest rate policies, central bankers in the euro zone and Japan are experimenting with some carrot, too. With the coronavirus pandemic... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government’s handling of its massive economic response to the coronavirus pandemic will come under scrutiny on Tuesday as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testify before the Senate Bankin... More »
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday that the annual budget will invest to create more jobs and get the economy going, but warned the country was about to enter a “very tough winter”. The government is seen unlea... More »
BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he opposed renegotiating the U.S.-China “Phase 1” trade deal after a Chinese state-run newspaper reported some government advisers in Beijing were urging fresh talks and possibly invalid... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s health authority said on Tuesday that the reappearance of local clusters of coronavirus cases in recent days suggests that counter-epidemic measures cannot be relaxed yet. While prevention and control efforts have normalised, that d... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s government should extend a costly job support programme until the end of the year for retail and hospitality workers hit hardest by the coronavirus, a think tank said on Tuesday, ahead of an expected government announcement. The Re... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Tuesday he was not considering tax cuts, including a reduction in the sales tax, for the time being as a way of easing the economic pain from the coronavirus pandemic. “Japan’s fiscal condition is in... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China announced on Tuesday a new list of 79 U.S. products eligible for waivers from retaliatory tariffs imposed at the height of the bilateral trade war, amid continued pressure on Beijing to boost imports from the United States. China’s fi... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hezbollah’s leader hailed the Lebanese government’s crisis plan as a “big, important step” on Monday and said any talks with the IMF must not blindly surrender the country to terms it can not bear. In a televised speech, Sayyed Hassan Nasral... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Russia and China are taking advantage of the coronavirus emergency to put their interests forward in Europe, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Monday, describing Chinese efforts to promote Huawei mobile phone network equipment as malig... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Researchers at a Hong Kong university say they have developed an antiviral coating which could provide 90 days of “significant” protection against bacteria and viruses such as the one causing COVID-19. The coating, called MAP-1, took 10 y... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan expanded monetary stimulus on Monday and pledged to buy unlimited amount of bonds to keep borrowing costs low as the government tries to spend its way out of the deepening economic pain from the coronavirus pandemic. The mov... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The European Central Bank meets on Thursday, the ink barely dry on its emergency bond-buying scheme, and markets are already asking what more it will do to help the euro zone economy through the coronavirus crisis. Its emergency stimulus, wh... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the global coronavirus pandemic began, now has no remaining cases in its hospitals, a health official told reporters on Sunday. The novel coronavirus is believed to have originated in a wet market in Wuhan ... More »
BENGALURU (Reuters) – The euro zone economy is already in its deepest recession on record, according to a Reuters poll of economists, who have stuck to a bleak outlook and worry the downturn might be even worse as coronavirus lockdowns across the bloc take the... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China is in talks with some countries to establish fast-track procedures to allow travel by business and technical personnel to ensure the smooth operation of global supply chains, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday. Foreign ministry spok... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China is handing out billions of yuan in shopping coupons to support retailers crushed by the COVID-19 outbreak, but the subsidies are doing little to support the kind of discretionary spending needed to revive the economy. Instead, a big c... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia will suffer its biggest economic contraction since the 1930s in the first half of this year due to containment measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, its central bank governor said on Tuesday. Describing the contraction as... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The euro zone’s fiscal response to the coronavirus crisis has been inadequate so far and threatens the single market, European Central Bank board member Fabio Panetta said in an editorial published by Politico. Budget action should be pro... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that it was concerned about the increasing number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in Japan. But Japan is not yet in the stage of a large-scale community outbreak, Takeshi Kasai, WHO Re... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan may see new hirings slow and job losses increase, particularly among service-sector firms struggling to cope with the intensifying pain of the coronavirus crisis, according to an analysis of survey data by a private think-tank. Dai-ichi... More »
SUIFENHE, China (Reuters) – China’s northeastern border with Russia has become a frontline in the fight against a resurgence of the coronavirus epidemic as new daily cases rose to the highest in nearly six weeks – with more than 90% involving people coming fro... More »
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China has reduced the number of people crossing its borders by 90% as part of its efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus, an immigration official said on Monday. Speaking at a briefing, Liu Haitao, an official with the Na... More »
MUMBAI (Reuters) – The impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak on the Indian economy would depend on the depth, duration and diffusion of the crisis, the Reserve Bank of India said in the minutes of its emergency monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting in Mar... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Monday there was no discrimination against “African brothers” in the country and rejected U.S. accusations of mistreatment of Africans in Guangzhou as an attempt to harm Beijing’s relations with African nations. Foreign minist... More »
HO CHI MINH CITY (Reuters) – A Vietnamese entrepreneur in Ho Chi Minh City has invented a 24/7 automatic dispensing machine providing free rice for people out of work following an ongoing nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Vietnam... More »
