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Bloomberg Reliance Industries Ltd started testing its online shopping portal three days after Facebook Inc said it will invest $5.7 billion in digital assets controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani. JioMart, an e-commerce venture of Reliance Retail, went live in three neighbourhoods surrounding Mumbai, leveraging a deal that gives it access to WhatsApp’s 400 million users in India currently under lockdown. ...

Bloomberg Indonesia opted for less punishing social-distancing measures than its neighbours to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Now analysts are warning its economy will take much longer to recover than others in Southeast Asia. With the pandemic’s peak expected in late May, President Joko Widodo is recalibrating his strategy of large-scale social distancing rules and calling for a ramp-up ...

Bloomberg Singapore home prices fell less than initially estimated in the first quarter, with an extended lockdown threatening to further push down values as the residential property comes to a standstill. Housing prices fell 1% in the three months ended on March 31, data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority showed. That compares to a preliminary estimate of a 1.2% decline. ...

Bloomberg The Philippines is known for training nurses and exporting them to all corners of the world, but now the nation finds itself shorthanded just as its number of coronavirus infections and deaths skyrocket. The islands’ death toll from Covid-19 has surged nearly fivefold since April 1 to 462, and the confirmed cases have tripled to 6,981 as of April ...

Bloomberg Argentina’s decision to pull out of regional trade negotiations will exacerbate the country’s economic crisis, a coalition of opposition lawmakers said. Citing economic policy priorities and the effects of the Covid-19 crisis, President Alberto Fernandez’s administration withdrew from ongoing and future talks with several countries as part of the regional South American trade bloc known as Mercosur, the group’s ...

Bloomberg Plant shutdowns are leaving the US dangerously close to meat shortages as coronavirus outbreaks now spread to suppliers across the Americas. The first big poultry plants closed in the US and experts are warning that domestic shortages are just weeks away. Brazil, the world’s No. 1 shipper of chicken and beef, saw its first major closure with the halt ...

Bloomberg Canada shouldn’t reopen its economy until there is enough personal protective equipment for businesses to fight the coronavirus, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. “I don’t think we should be reopening any sector of the economy until we have enough material to protect Canadians and ensure that we are stopping the spread of Covid-19,” Trudeau said at a news briefing ...

Bloomberg Venezuela’s government set new price controls for more than two dozen products and announced the takeover of a cooking oil producer as food shortages in the countryside lead to protests and rioting. Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said the government would also assume supervision of Empresas Polar, the national food giant and Venezuela’s largest privately held company, headed by Chief ...

Bloomberg Elon Musk said Texas remains in contention for a new factory that will build Tesla Inc.’s Cybertruck. The company’s billionaire chief executive officer provided the update on Twitter late Friday. He said Tesla’s Fremont, California, factory is already at maximum capacity. In March, Musk said Tesla is scouting locations to build both the electric pickup and the Model Y ...

Bloomberg Europe’s five largest automotive markets edged past China in electric vehicle registrations in first quarter of 2020, as China battled the outbreak of the coronavirus and imposed shutdowns countrywide, according to a study by PwC and its strategy consulting subsidiary Strategy&. Germany, France, the UK Italy and Spain collectively registered 79,300 fully electric vehicles between January and March, narrowly ...