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Bloomberg Thailand may ease its partial national lockdown starting from early May in provinces that are free of novel coronavirus infections. Only provinces clear of the pathogen for two weeks would be eligible, Kamnuan Ungchusak, an adviser to the nation’s health minister, told reporters. The proposal will undergo further evaluation, he said. The Asian nation is under a state of ...

Bloomberg Visitors to Japan in March slumped to levels not seen since Japan’s economic heyday in the 1980s after the coronavirus pandemic shut down global travel, an early sign the impact the drop will have on retailers that thrived on tourist spending. Visitors in March fell 93% from a year earlier to 193,700 people, the steepest drop on record, figures ...

Bloomberg The Danish economy may lose more than 190 billion kroner ($28 billion) this year, the equivalent of 8.3% of gross domestic product, as a result of a slowdown in economic activity, according to a business survey conducted by the Confederation of Danish Industry. The figure is up from an estimate of 155 billion kroner four weeks ago, according to ...

Bloomberg International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) reported a drop in first-quarter revenue and pulled its profit forecast for the year, signalling that the Covid-19 pandemic has become another hurdle for the company in its transition to cloud computing. Sales declined 3.4% to $17.6 billion in the period that ended March 31, the Armonk, New York-based company said in a statement. ...

Bloomberg UK jobless claims increased last month as the coronavirus pandemic began to have an impact on the labour market. Claims rose 12,200 compared with a 5,900 gain in February, the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday. The claimant count rate rose to 3.5%, the highest since the start of 2014. Unemployment is sure to keep rising after the ...

Bloomberg French automaker PSA Group posted a 16 percent slump in first-quarter sales and forecast the European market will shrink by a quarter this year as the coronavirus pandemic slams the car industry. The company has secured liquidity and cut costs, Chief Financial Officer Philippe de Rovira said in the statement on Tuesday, adding that it is preparing for a ...

Bloomberg Uber Technologies Inc. won approval to serve as a business vendor to the US government, allowing the company to vie for an estimated $810 million in spending over the next five years. Politicians and campaigns have for years relied on Uber for rides to and catering for their events, but the decision is the first clearance for federal agencies ...

Bloomberg Oil suffered its biggest one-day price plunge in the modern era, at one point crashing about 40% to below $11 a barrel as traders contended with an historic glut. Despite Opec+’s unprecedented output deal agreed a week ago, the oil market remains massively oversupplied as the lockdowns to fight the spread of the coronavirus reduce global crude demand by ...

DUBAI / WAM Dubai Customs announced that its external trade of masks during the first quarter of 2020 reached AED60.5 million, compared to the 2019 yearly total of AED63.5 million. To meet the rising demand of masks and medical gloves, Dubai Customs took further steps and procedures to facilitate the trade of these items against the outbreak of Covid-19, the ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, Director-General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) stressed that the UAE has accomplished achievements in smart services and digital transformation, due to the future vision of its leadership and the efforts of government authorities, in cooperation with the private sector. Al Mansoori pointed out that the UAE’s telecom and information technology sector ...