Bloomberg Volkswagen AG’s unprecedented move to halt output on both sides of the Atlantic costs the world’s largest automaker $2.2 billion per week, and CEO Herbert Diess said decisive action is critical to overcome the coronavirus pandemic. Sales outside China have effectively come to a standstill, while demand in the country, VW’s largest single market, has clawed back to about ...

Bloomberg The World Health Organization (WHO) plans to reach at least 50 million people with a WhatsApp information service that delivers information on demand about the coronavirus and is so successful in South Africa it will be used around the world. The free service, the first of its kind launched globally by the WHO, garnered 10 million users within three ...

Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) will scrap limits on bond purchases for its 750 billion-euro ($819 billion) emergency program in a landmark decision that gives it almost unlimited firepower to fight the economic fallout from the coronavirus (Covid-19). Government bonds rallied across the euro area after the ECB released a legal document that said the so-called issue limits, which ...

Bloomberg The UK’s coronavirus lockdown should trigger a recovery in the pound, which has fallen to its most undervalued ever against the dollar, according to Standard Chartered Plc. The government’s aggressive actions should enable a quick restoration of economic activity once the health situation improves, wrote strategists including Geoff Kendrick in a note. At the same time, the potential near-term ...

Bloomberg India’s central bank should directly start monetising the government’s fiscal deficit in efforts to fight one of its worst economic crisis, said Ananth Narayan, former South Asia head of financial markets at Standard Chartered Plc. “In a war, we have to borrow from our future,” said Narayan, now a professor at Mumbai-based SP Jain Institute of Management & Research. ...

Bloomberg Policy makers trying to prevent credit markets from freezing up have a huge challenge on their hands with regional banks. Such firms should be best positioned to keep money flowing to community businesses like restaurants, travel agencies and gyms on the brink of failure because of the coronavirus pandemic. But regional banks themselves are increasingly at risk, riven by ...

Bloomberg Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is using the coronavirus pandemic to seize a large portfolio of assets at rock-bottom prices, a New York real estate investment trust (REIT) claims. In a suit in federal court in Manhattan, a subsidiary of AG Mortgage Investment Trust Inc. said it received March 23 margin calls from Canada’s largest lender. According to the ...

Bloomberg China set its daily reference rate for the yuan at a stronger-than-expected level, with the central bank perhaps signaling efforts to support the currency following recent weakness. The PBOC put the fixing at 7.0692 yuan per dollar, 105 basis points stronger than the average forecast of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The spread is the most since February 3, the ...

Bloomberg IndusInd Bank Ltd., backed by the billionaire Hinduja brothers, surged the most on record, as investors poured into the stock after its founders said they are repaying a loan backed by shares of the lender. The shares jumped as much as 50%, the sharpest since the bank’s stock started trading in 1998, to 451.95 rupees in Mumbai. The rally ...

Bloomberg Unable to fill planes with passengers as the coronavirus destroys travel demand, airlines are instead using their fleets to transport more cargo, including medicines, smartphones and Korean strawberries. The likes of Cathay Pacific Airways, Korean Air Lines and American Airlines are hauling a greater amount of goods in the belly of their passenger planes to keep up with demand. ...