International News

Bloomberg President Emmanuel Macron unveiled a raft of measures aimed at reviving France’s struggling car industry and drawing manufacturing back to local factories. The plan includes incentives for the purchase of electric cars, cash-for-clunkers to encourage consumers to trade in older, more polluting cars and subsidies for struggling car-parts makers. The total of roughly 8 billion euros ($9 billion) also ...

Bloomberg Argentina’s ninth default on its external debt is now official after some of its bonds were cut to default status by two rating companies. Fitch Ratings reduced the South American nation to restricted default (RD), while S&P Global downgraded four of its dollar-denominated bonds to default from CC following a missed $500 million payment last week. That sets up ...

Bloomberg Brazil, the biggest exporter of beef and chicken, is betting on a new set of safety standards to avoid the kind of mass processing disruptions that caused meat shortages and price spikes in America. The South American farming powerhouse plans to introduce new national guidelines that incorporate requirements from local authorities and labour prosecutors, Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina Dias ...

Bloomberg The Philippines’ Trade Department wants lawmakers to pass a 1.3-trillion peso ($26 billion) stimulus package that will aid the recovery of industries and their displaced workers. Of the total stimulus being discussed at the House of Representatives, about 628 billion pesos is planned for wage subsidies and loans for businesses hit by the lockdown, the Trade Department said in ...

Bloomberg Singapore’s Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat delivered a fourth fiscal package of S$33 billion ($23 billion) to counter the economic fallout of the coronavirus, providing specific support to saving jobs. The latest measures will help businesses and workers affected by border closures and movement restrictions, Heng said in a Parliament session Tuesday. The steps will push this fiscal year’s ...

Bloomberg Oil traded near $33 a barrel as an escalating war of words between the US and China added to caution over the prospects for a global recovery in demand. China has warned that some in the US were pushing the countries towards a new Cold War, stoking concerns that deteriorating relations between Beijing and Washington could complicate the market’s ...

Bloomberg The Japanese government ended its nationwide state of emergency on Monday as cases tail off and announced a decision on funding for a new aid package to help a virus-battered economy. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a news conference on Monday that reviving the economy was now the top priority, and his government will decide on a second extra ...

Bloomberg Germany will offer Deutsche Lufthansa AG a 9 billion-euro ($9.8 billion) bailout that thrusts the state back into the heart of a company privatized with fanfare two decades ago. The aid package involves taking an initial 20% stake that could rise to 25% plus one share in the event of a hostile takeover, according to a statement on Monday. ...

Bloomberg European Union (EU) governments are trying to forge a consensus over how to provide aid to the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. With France and, crucially, Germany proposing a jointly-financed recovery fund to help the region cushion the blow from the steepest recession in living memory, the outcome of the talks could determine the bloc’s future direction ...

Bloomberg Former German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble backed the European Union’s (EU) proposed 500 billion-euro ($545 billion) economic-recovery plan, adding a key voice to a standoff with EU countries focusing on fiscal austerity. The comments by Schaeuble, who remains influential within Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, suggest he’s gearing up to play a role when the package ...