News

Bloomberg While Indian technology outsourcing companies have largely held up better in the coronavirus pandemic than other industries in the nation, predicting how they are likely to perform in the future has never been so hard. The uncertainty stemming from the virus and countries’ efforts to contain it have made it harder to estimate short-term earnings than at any other ...

Bloomberg Argentine Economy Minister Martin Guzman has backed the idea of a wealth tax on the country’s rich as the nation to fend off creditors and find money to help cope with the Covid-19 pandemic. The tax would affect 11,000 people with fortunes of at least $2 million, Guzman said, without specifying where that cut-off point might come. He spoke ...

Bloomberg The US will allow companies to defer paying tariffs on many imported goods for 90 days, a move aimed at freeing up cash for pandemic-hit employers while leaving punitive measures against China and other nations intact. “This will protect American jobs and help these businesses get through this time,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. The deferral ...

Bloomberg Canada says it will apply extra scrutiny to foreign investment in companies that are related to public health or that supply critical goods during the pandemic. “There are vulnerable businesses that are going to be important to our recovery who are perhaps exposed to foreign purchases,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. “We will be strengthening our ...

Bloomberg Spain’s economy could contract this year by more than 12% in a worst-case-scenario forecast by the country’s central bank, the first official figures that spell out the potential toll of the coronavirus pandemic on the European Union’s fourth-largest economy. The economic shock could push the unemployment rate to as high as 21.7% this year, undoing gains achieved in the ...

Bloomberg Germany has pledged 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) to help its beleaguered startups, but the policy has stalled after the country’s governmental departments failed to agree on who has to pay. More than two weeks after the aid plan has been announced, Germany’s finance and economy ministries are yet to find common ground over who is responsible for paying ...

Bloomberg The biggest US companies will slash their cash spending this year amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. “We forecast S&P 500 cash spending will decline by an annual record 33% during 2020 as firms prioritize liquidity in a worsening economic environment,” strategists led by David Kostin wrote in a ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The emirate of Abu Dhabi on April 8 priced a $7 billion multi-tranche international bond offering, which attracted strong interest from international investors. In a statement on Sunday, Abu Dhabi Department of Finance said the successful issuance is an integral component of Abu Dhabi’s medium-term strategy focused on optimisng the capital structure of the emirate. The ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The UAE central bank announced on Sunday that gross bank assets for March had reached AED3.128 trillion, a growth of 1.1 percent from the previous month. In a statement, the central bank noted that money supply aggregate M1 had increased by 2.5 percent last month, reaching AED542.7 billion compared to February figures (AED529.4 billion). It added ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The UAE  has sent a plane carrying 18 metric tons of medical and food aid to Mauritania as a gesture of solidarity in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The shipment, which contained testing kits, medical devices, and food supplies, will assist approximately 10,000 healthcare workers in Mauritania as they work to contain spread of Covid-19. ...