Bloomberg Springtime is a difficult moment to puzzle out what the ongoing economic shutdown means for global warming. Carbon-dioxide levels always drop throughout the spring and summer in the Northern Hemisphere, as hungry plants absorb the primary greenhouse gas. This seasonal effect is occurring as pandemic lockdowns have stopped billions of people from driving and working, slashing fossil-fuel use and ...

Bloomberg China’s overseas energy purchases weakened in March as demand from the top importer took a hit from the coronavirus pandemic. Crude oil imports fell to the equivalent of about 9.72 million barrels a day, the least since July, according to customs data released on Tuesday. Natural gas shipments were little changed from a year ago at 6.92 million tons ...

Bloomberg Russia’s deepening economic crisis is on the verge of spilling into some of the most remittance-dependent economies in the world. Migrant workers from the former-Soviet Union send $13 billion home each year from Russia, where they are allowed to work visa-free. But now that money is starting to dry up due to lockdowns in Moscow and St. Petersburg that ...

Bloomberg Europe is heading for a double-digit slump in first half of 2020 amid widespread lockdowns to stem the spread of the coronavirus, according to economists. Bloomberg’s monthly survey puts the contraction in the euro area at more than 10% in the January-June period, with most of the hit — 8.3% — in the second quarter. Even with an expected ...

Bloomberg The US federal budget deficit is on track to exceed $3.8 trillion this year even if Congress doesn’t enact any more stimulus spending, and the nation’s debt will rise to levels not seen since the country emerged from World War II, a non-partisan budget watchdog estimated. The projection by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget would put the ...

Bloomberg The French government was forced to revise its economic and financial forecasts for the second time in less than a week after President Emmanuel Macron extended the lockdown to combat the coronavirus. France will base an emergency budget on economic output contracting 8% this year, instead of 6% as it had planned last week. Extra spending to support companies ...

Bloomberg Brazil’s economic team wants to adopt a flexible fiscal target for 2021 as uncertainties caused by the novel coronavirus make it difficult to estimate the impact of the crisis, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter. The government has until April 15 to send a bill to Congress with forecasts for next year. The bill has ...

Bloomberg JBS SA, the world’s top meat company, will shutter its beef facility in Greeley, Colorado, through April 24 amid an outbreak of the coronavirus among plant employees and neighboring communities. The Greeley facility will wind down operations over the next two days with a diminished staff to ensure existing product in the facility can be used to support food ...

Bloomberg Now Germany is deploying its financial firepower to fight the coronavirus crisis, convincing the country that it was wrong to shun budget deficits for many years just got even harder. The government of Europe’s biggest economy has long faced calls by officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB), to the US administration of ...

Bloomberg North Korea fired multiple missiles from its eastern coast on Tuesday, in a show of military might ahead of parliamentary elections in South Korea. The projectiles were fired on Tuesday from sites near Munchon and neighbouring Wonsan on the east coast, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense said in a statement. North Korea launched short-range cruise missiles from ...