The economic fallout for Italy from Covid-19 is going to hammer its already precarious government finances. The country’s 1.7 trillion-euro ($1.9 trillion) debt mountain is the largest in Europe, and there will no doubt be a substantial jump in its ratio of debt to gross domestic product from 135% to beyond 150%. Nevertheless, Rome’s ability to manage its borrowings may ...

Andrew Bailey, the new Bank of England (BOE) governor, was at pains in an FT interview to draw a clear distinction between the BOE’s bulk buying of bonds and its direct financing of the British government’s coronavirus spending plans. The latter simply wasn’t going to happen, he said, because it would damage the central bank’s credibility in pursuing its defining ...

Bloomberg The Indian tycoon whose net worth surged the most among peers as the deadly coronavirus roils markets worldwide can thank nation’s hoarders with millions scrambling to stock up on staples amid the world’s biggest isolation effort. The net worth of Radhakishan Damani, who controls Avenue Supermarts Ltd., has surged almost 11% this year to $10.7 billion, singling him out ...