Emerging from nearly a year of battling an economy dragged down by Covid-19 and a rickety financial system, Beijing is realising what the most important collateral damage has been: consumers. Without their wallets and balance sheets, China’s economic blueprint for the next five years won’t work. That explains why authorities have been talking up consumer protection, household leverage and the ...

In January, Joe Biden will take charge of an executive branch left in woeful disrepair. Practically every important federal institution has been scorched by four years of sustained assault by his predecessor — none more so than the State Department. President Donald Trump has damaged American diplomacy in word and deed. His secretaries of state, first Rex Tillerson and then ...

Bloomberg Black Friday — once the ultimate US shopping day — is being disrupted like so much else in these Covid-19 times, with consumers largely avoiding malls and instead flocking online. What that means for overall sales for the holiday season remains to be seen, but it’s becoming clearer that the pandemic has only accelerated the move away from big ...

Bloomberg Airbus SE is confident in its plan to increase production of the best-selling A320 family of jets to a rate of 47 a month next year, even as the slump in air travel puts pressure on customers, according to people familiar with the matter. The company has extensively stress-tested its backlog of orders for the model, and remains comfortable ...

Bloomberg South African retailers including The Foschini Group (TFG) Ltd and Woolworths Holdings Ltd are increasing investment in local clothing manufacturers — both to reduce a dependency on Chinese imports and secure a supply chain thrown into disarray by Covid-19 restrictions. The companies have signed up to an industry plan that includes a target to source 65% of their goods ...

Bloomberg The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated airlines’ digital uptake as carriers look for ways to reduce human touchpoints. But that push has had another impact, too. It’s reduced cabin weight, and that can mean big cost savings. Singapore Airlines Ltd’s low-cost carrier Scoot said it’s introducing an inflight system called ScootHub that customers can access via their mobile devices to ...

Bloomberg Mike Ashley, the founder of the Sports Direct sportswear chain, is prepared to offer a 50 million-pound ($66.5 million) loan to Philip Green’s Arcadia Group, which is teetering on the brink of administration, Sky News reported. The board of Frasers Group Plc, run by Ashley, has drawn up plans for an emergency loan to Arcadia, Sky reported, citing Chris ...

Bloomberg Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin called on members of the ruling coalition to strengthen cooperation ahead of a general election he intends to hold once the virus pandemic subsides. The premier acknowledged the tense ties between his Bersatu party and rival turned key ally United Malays National Organization (UMNO), which controls the most parliament seats in his coalition. Steps ...

Bloomberg Nigeria said Boko Haram insurgents attacked rice farmers in the country’s northeast, leaving at least 42 of them dead. Insurgents ambushed farmers who had gone into rice fields in the Jere district of Borno state to bring in their harvest, according to a Nigerian presidency statement on Twitter. “I condemn the killing of our hardworking farmers by terrorists,“ President ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump isn’t abandoning his drive to overturn the election results in Wisconsin, despite state officials announcing a recount in Milwaukee county had only added to Democrat Joe Biden’s lead. “The Wisconsin recount is not about finding mistakes in the count, it is about finding people who have voted illegally, and that case will be brought after the ...