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Bloomberg Oil turned lower on an unprecedented hit to consumption, even as policy makers attempted to kickstart the global economy. Futures in London erased earlier gains to trade down 4.2%. The boss of trading house Vitol Group said demand is down about 15 million to 20 million barrels a day and will shrink further with India’s decision to go into …

Bloomberg The euro area is preparing to make available credit lines from its bailout fund worth up to 2% of each country’s output, as the region’s finance ministers seek to lay out the next phase of their fiscal response to the coronavirus outbreak. The tentative progress comes as an array of forecasts and sentiment indicators have pointed to a severe …

Bloomberg The global economy is taking a battering not seen in decades, the outcome of severe restrictions on businesses and households by governments desperately trying to contain a pandemic that’s killed almost 17,400 people worldwide. The first major numbers outlining the damage tell a story of companies seeing demand plunge at a record pace, activity shrinking and confidence dropping. Government …

Bloomberg The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of UAE has lifted restrictions on some programs that allow voice calls over the Internet, including Microsoft Skype for Business and Google Hangout, to help people work from home and avoid spreading the coronavirus. The applications allowed on all networks in the country are: Microsoft Times, Zoom, and Blackboard. The applications, which will be compatible with …

Bloomberg The 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be delayed by a year in the first postponement since the modern games began in the 19th century, becoming the biggest global event to be disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach agreed to the unprecedented move in a telephone call on …

Bloomberg Prime Minister Narendra Modi has imposed a three-week long nationwide lockdown and allocated an extra $1.97 billion for health care to contain the spread of coronavirus infections which are now spiking in the South Asian nation. “If we listen to health experts we know that 21 days are crucial to break the cycle of transmission,” Modi said in his …

Bloomberg Oil dropped towards the lowest level since 2003 as demand plunged as governments froze economic activity to combat the coronavirus, and prospects for a Opec-Texas production deal faded. Futures in London fell 5.6% to near $25 a barrel as some traders estimate crude demand will collapse by as much as 20 million barrels a day this year. Texas Railroad …

Bloomberg Africa needs an immediate emergency economic stimulus of $100 billion to combat the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and almost half of that could come from waiving interest payments for countries on the continent, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). The waiver of interest payments, estimated at $44 billion for 2020, and the possible extension …

Bloomberg The UK economy will contract at least 10% in the first half of the year as the fallout from the coronavirus hammers output, according to Bloomberg Economics’ estimates. In a report released on Monday, senior UK economist Dan Hanson said support provided by the Bank of England and the Treasury should prompt a turnaround in the second half of …

Bloomberg China’s economy will swiftly return to its potential growth rate and there’ll be significant improvement in the coming three months, a senior central bank official said on Sunday. “Economic indicators will likely show significant improvement in the second quarter and the Chinese economy will return to potential output level rather swiftly,” People’s Bank of China Deputy Governor Chen Yulu …