Bloomberg Europe is heading for a double-digit slump in first half of 2020 amid widespread lockdowns to stem the spread of the coronavirus, according to economists. Bloomberg’s monthly survey puts the contraction in the euro area at more than 10% in the January-June period, with most of the hit — 8.3% — in the second quarter. Even with an expected ...

Bloomberg The US federal budget deficit is on track to exceed $3.8 trillion this year even if Congress doesn’t enact any more stimulus spending, and the nation’s debt will rise to levels not seen since the country emerged from World War II, a non-partisan budget watchdog estimated. The projection by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget would put the ...

Bloomberg The French government was forced to revise its economic and financial forecasts for the second time in less than a week after President Emmanuel Macron extended the lockdown to combat the coronavirus. France will base an emergency budget on economic output contracting 8% this year, instead of 6% as it had planned last week. Extra spending to support companies ...

Bloomberg Brazil’s economic team wants to adopt a flexible fiscal target for 2021 as uncertainties caused by the novel coronavirus make it difficult to estimate the impact of the crisis, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter. The government has until April 15 to send a bill to Congress with forecasts for next year. The bill has ...

Bloomberg JBS SA, the world’s top meat company, will shutter its beef facility in Greeley, Colorado, through April 24 amid an outbreak of the coronavirus among plant employees and neighboring communities. The Greeley facility will wind down operations over the next two days with a diminished staff to ensure existing product in the facility can be used to support food ...

Bloomberg Now Germany is deploying its financial firepower to fight the coronavirus crisis, convincing the country that it was wrong to shun budget deficits for many years just got even harder. The government of Europe’s biggest economy has long faced calls by officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB), to the US administration of ...

Bloomberg North Korea fired multiple missiles from its eastern coast on Tuesday, in a show of military might ahead of parliamentary elections in South Korea. The projectiles were fired on Tuesday from sites near Munchon and neighbouring Wonsan on the east coast, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense said in a statement. North Korea launched short-range cruise missiles from ...

Bloomberg Austrians lined up outside hardware and gardening stores that reopened on Tuesday after the country became one of the first in Europe to ease lockdown measures. The soft and partial restart of the economy — also one of the first to clamp down on public life to halt the spread of the coronavirus — will be eyed by others ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump’s push to reopen the world’s largest economy hinges on a breakthrough that has so far eluded him: ratcheting up testing capacity to stave off another wave of coronavirus. Trump is anxious to end economy-crushing social distancing practices that have curbed the spread of the illness. He declared that he has “total” authority to reopen the country, ...

Bloomberg Vietnam may extend its social distancing order in provinces and cities that have a high risk of the spread of the novel coronavirus spread, the government said in a posting on its website. The government initiated a 15-day social distancing and stay-at-home order on April 1. It is now looking to divide provinces and regions of the country into ...