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Bloomberg Singapore’s government has issued a correction notice to a Facebook post by a page called ‘State News Singapore,’ which is often critical of the ruling party and its leaders, contesting its description of a recent call between PM Lee Hsien Loong and Malaysia Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin over easing travel restrictions. The post in question says Singapore’s Lee personally ...

Bloomberg Vietnam’s economy unexpectedly grew in the second quarter, though at the slowest pace in at least a decade, as exports slumped because of the coronavirus pandemic. Gross domestic product rose 0.36% from a year earlier, compared with a revised 3.68% in the first quarter, the General Statistics Office said on Monday in Hanoi. The median estimate in a Bloomberg ...

Bloomberg Japan’s industrial production dropped again in May even as a nationwide state of emergency was lifted, showing the severity of the pandemic’s impact on the export-reliant manufacturing sector. Factory output fell 8.4% from April, the economy ministry reported on Tuesday. Production slid from the prior month for a fourth time in a row, something that hasn’t happened since 2012. ...

Bloomberg A fresh swarm of desert locusts has entered Uttar Pradesh, India’s biggest sugarcane grower, via capital city Delhi and the northern state of Haryana, according to the federal farm ministry. Operations to control the grasshoppers are in full swing in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Punjab and Maharashtra, the ministry said in a statement. ...

Bloomberg Thailand plans to allow foreign business travellers into the country for the first time since closing its borders to most international flights in March. Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Japan passport holders, along with people from some Chinese provinces, may be allowed to travel to Thailand as part of proposed “business-travel bubbles” from July. The initiative seeks to ...

Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has appointed a longtime veteran to replace Pierre Poignant as Lazada Group CEO, the latest top-level reshuffle at the Chinese e-commerce titan’s Southeast Asian operation. Chun Li, who currently runs Lazada’s Indonesian business, will take the reins from July, Lazada said in a statement. Li served as chief technology officer for Alibaba’s business-to-business division between ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, has received a phone call from His Holiness Pope Francis, Head of the Catholic Church, in which they discussed the close UAE-Vatican relations and ways to bolster them to serve mutual interests. During the ...

Bloomberg Oil steadied in New York as the boost from a weaker dollar offset concerns that the resurgence of coronavirus will crimp fuel demand. Futures held above $38 a barrel, recouping earlier losses of 2.6% as the slide in the US currency made dollar-priced commodities an attractive hedge. Still, sentiment in crude markets remained fragile after last week’s 3.2% slide. ...

DUBAI / WAM Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower) has launched a consumption rationalisation campaign under the theme ’Set your AC at 24 C Auto and Save’. The campaign will run until the end of summer and aims to encouraging its customers to rationalise the district cooling consumption during the summer season by setting the air- conditioner thermostat at 24 ...

Bloomberg Of the more than $110 billion in additional funding that sub-Saharan Africa will need this year to fight the coronavirus pandemic, $44 billion has not been financed yet even after several countries have taken up emergency loans and debt-service relief initiatives, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The funding needs persist despite the IMF approving debt-service relief for ...