International News

Bloomberg Spain has earmarked 9 billion euros ($10.2 billion) to help fund regional governments’ healthcare response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The central government will transfer 6 billion euros in September and as much 3 billion in November, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a televised statement. The measure will be approved by the cabinet through a decree on June 16, ...

Bloomberg Mexico asked the World Bank for a $1 billion loan, according to El Economista newspaper, which cited a loan agreement it viewed. Mexico Deputy Finance Minister Gabriel Yorio said the financing was a development policy loan and would not be used for its Covid-19 response program. Yorio did not say in his tweets how large the loan was. The ...

Bloomberg Two drugmakers behind the industry’s most prominent responses to the Covid-19 pandemic are looking into the possibility of a combined future as economies emerge from lockdowns. AstraZeneca Plc, co-developer of one of the fastest-moving experimental coronavirus vaccines, has made a preliminary approach to Gilead Sciences Inc., maker of the only US-approved treatment, according to people familiar with the matter. ...

Bloomberg Finland is turning to former Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen to steer it out of the Covid-19 slump and help rebuild its public finances after a massive bout of stimulus spending. The Center Party unanimously chose the 64-year-old speaker of parliament as the country’s new finance minister after Katri Kulmuni stepped down over an expenses scandal. Vanhanen told a press ...

Bloomberg The coronavirus pandemic has left Malaysia’s palm oil industry without enough workers, a shortage that could cost farmers as much as 25% of their annual production — a loss worth about $2.8 billion. Malaysia’s economy relies on palm oil, its most important agricultural commodity, but palm oil needs migrant workers from Indonesia, Bangladesh and India to do jobs locals ...

Bloomberg China, the world’s largest copper consumer, imported less metal and concentrate last month as pandemic-driven lockdowns in overseas mining regions disrupted supplies. Copper concentrate imports were 1.69 million tons in May, down from 2.03 million tons in April and 1.84 million tons a year ago, according to customs data. Unwrought copper and products purchases were 436,031 tons, falling from ...

Bloomberg A group led by Silver Lake Partners agreed to invest another 45.5 billion rupees ($602 million) in Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd’s digital arm, in the latest vote of confidence in billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s online push. The US private equity firm and its co-investors will hold a 2.1% stake in Reliance’s Jio Platforms unit, according to a Mumbai exchange ...

Bloomberg China’s trade surplus surged to a record in May as exports fell less than expected, helped by an increase in medical-related sales, and imports slumped along with commodity prices. Exports decreased 3.3% in dollar terms from a year earlier, beating economists’ estimates, while imports plunged 16.7%. That resulted in a trade surplus of $62.93 billion. The record surplus comes ...

Bloomberg Soybean imports by China rose 27% in May from a year earlier, after crushers increased purchases from Brazil to take advantage of cheap supplies amid strong crush margins. The country shipped in 9.4 million tons in May, compared with 7.4 million tons in the same month last year, and 6.7 million tons in April, according to customs data. Chinese ...

Bloomberg Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd has launched clinical trials of a plant-derived drug it’s developing to treat Covid-19, joining the race to find an effective treatment for the disease that’s killed almost 400,000 people worldwide. India’s largest drugmaker will commence Phase II trials on 210 patients across 12 centers in India and the results are expected by October, according to ...