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Bloomberg Hong Kong is warning residents to abide by home quarantine orders and social distancing regulations or they will face criminal prosecution and fines, as the Asian financial centre continues to battle a resurgence in imported coronavirus cases. The city has already caught more than 70 people violating some of the more than 50,000 home quarantine orders, sent them to ...

Bloomberg Japanese sellers of masks, toilet paper and other sanitary products are turning out to be rare beneficiaries of the coronavirus. Sales of masks, alcohol wipes and other healthcare products jumped by about 47% at Japanese drug stores, a record in trade ministry data going back to 2014. Outlays on daily necessities including toilet paper surged 31%, also a record. ...

Bloomberg UK consumers scaled back their unsecured borrowing in February as the country battled flooding and the start of the coronavirus update. Loans to households rose just 877 million pounds ($1.09 billion) from January, when they rose 1.1 billion pounds, the Bank of England said in a report. At the same time, mortgage approvals jumped to 73,546, the most since ...

Bloomberg Economic sentiment in the euro area plunged the most on record after the furious spread of the coronavirus forced businesses in vast parts of the region shut and prospects dwindled that life will return to normal any time soon. The European Commission reading — following similarly downbeat reports out of the region’s biggest economies — comes at the end ...

Bloomberg Before the coronavirus pandemic besieged Europe, Kike Sarasola worried about whether he was building enough hotels to capitalise on the region’s long-running tourism boom. Such concerns have disappeared, along with the tourists. The only guests at three of his six boutique hotels in Madrid are doctors and nurses fighting the deadly disease. The transformation of Sarasola’s Room Mate Laura ...

Bloomberg Bulgaria’s plan to join the euro area hit a road block, with the central bank saying the coronavirus crisis had rendered targets to integrate deeper this year “unrealistic.” It’s the latest setback in efforts of the bloc’s poorest member to join both the ERM-2, known as the waiting room for the euro area, and the euro-area’s banking union by ...

Dubai / WAM Expo 2020 Dubai has convened a second virtual meeting of its Steering Committee, with representatives of the countries taking part in the event, as part of ongoing consultations that the impact of coronavirus (Covid-19) will have on global preparations of Expo 2020 Dubai. Participating countries briefed the Steering Committee on the global precautionary measures that have to ...

Bloomberg Oil slumped to a 17-year low as coronavirus lockdowns cascaded through the world’s largest economies, leaving the market overwhelmed by cratering demand and a ballooning surplus of crude. Futures in London fell as much as 7.6% to lowest since November 2002, while New York crude briefly dipped below $20 a barrel. Physical oil markets are struggling to store fuel, ...

ABU DHABI / WAM ADCB Group, including Al Hilal Bank, on Monday announced its commitment to ensure the continuity of employment at the Bank, pledging that no employee will be made redundant during 2020 as a result of coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Commenting on the announcement, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Chairman of ADCB Group, said, “The banking sector plays an important role ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s central bank is ordering lenders to provide concessional loans to businesses grappling with the fallout of the coronavirus so companies won’t have to cut jobs. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (Sama) wants banks to immediately put in place a lending program for at least six months to “assist in maintaining employment levels,” according to a document sent ...