International News

Bloomberg France will guarantee up to 300 billion euros ($335 billion) of bank loans to companies in an effort to bolster firms threatened by the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, President Emmanuel Macron said. The government will also allow companies to delay paying their taxes and social security contributions and provide support to help them delay loan payments, Macron said ...

Bloomberg UK businesses struggling to avoid collapse will be promised extra help by Boris Johnson’s government as the coronavirus inflicts further damage on the global economy. Airlines, tourist attractions, restaurants and theaters are among organisations facing a bleak outlook after the prime minister announced curbs on public events, travel and social gatherings. On Tuesday, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Microsoft Corp., Twitter Inc. and Reddit said they are teaming up to provide accurate information about the coronavirus and the Covid-19 illness it causes. “We’re helping millions of people stay connected while also jointly combating fraud and misinformation about the virus, elevating authoritative content on our platforms, and sharing critical updates in coordination with ...

Bloomberg Spain’s securities regulator banned short selling for a month in an attempt to shield local stocks from the volatility caused by the coronavirus outbreak. The decision “has been taken due to the extreme volatility taking hold of European securities markets, including those based in Spain, their performance in the context of the situation arisen as a result of the ...

Bloomberg The euro area’s gigantic bailout fund is exploring how it can use its reserves to cushion the impact of a virus-induced recession, in a move that could help reassure markets after a spike in borrowing costs for the region’s most vulnerable economies. Klaus Regling, the head of the European Stability Mechanism, said Monday it has an unused lending capacity ...

Bloomberg FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. are dropping the normal signature rules for package deliveries to protect customers and workers as the coronavirus outbreak worsens. In a small sign of how the disease is changing business as usual, FedEx said it’s suspending the need to sign for most packages. UPS is also forgoing routine signatures. For parcels that ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong’s jobless rate likely rose to its highest level in nine years in February as the novel coronavirus outbreak and plunges in asset prices weighed on the city’s economy, according to Financial Secretary Paul Chan. Hotels, retailers, restaurants and construction are among the industries that were hit hardest as companies shorten hours and shutter operations, Chan wrote in ...

Bloomberg China suffered an even deeper slump than analysts feared at the start of the year as the coronavirus shuttered factories, shops and restaurants across the nation, underscoring the fallout now facing the global economy as the virus spreads around the world. Industrial output plunged 13.5% in January and February from a year earlier, retail sales fell 20.5%, and fixed-asset ...

Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd co-founder Jack Ma has joined Twitter. In his first tweet, Ma posted photos of a China Eastern Airlines plane with boxes of coronavirus test kits and face masks slated to be shipped and donated to the US from Shanghai. “All the best to our friends in America,” he wrote, which garnered more than 3,500 retweets ...

Bloomberg An investigation into Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd, initiated by its board after the death of founder VG Siddhartha, is likely to conclude that at least 20 billion rupees ($270 million) is missing from its accounts, according to people familiar with the matter. The months-long probe following the suicide of Siddhartha in July examined the financial transactions of India’s largest ...