Bloomberg The UK will plow 800 million pounds ($1 billion) into job centers, in an effort to cope with a wave of unemployment in the wake of coronavirus pandemic. The government will double the number of work coaches to 27,000 to help benefit claimants back into work, with an initial 4,500 hires by October, the Treasury said in a statement. ...

Bloomberg An average of 178,000 workers have been exiting Spain’s furlough program every week to return to their jobs, a sign that the economic recovery is slowly gathering pace in a country that’s expected to suffer one of Europe’s deepest recessions this year. The daily exodus has accelerated as authorities gradually lifted a strict nationwide lockdown that crippled Europe’s fourth-largest ...

Bloomberg The UK government is set to award 5 billion pounds ($6.2 billion) of coronavirus testing contracts to private companies as it overhauls the way it tracks Covid-19. The tender from Public Health England, announced in a public notice, comes after Britain’s coronavirus-testing effort has been dogged by reports of missing tests and long waits for results. The UK currently ...

Bloomberg Budget restrictions for European Union (EU) member states will apply again after the coronavirus-driven recession is over, European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said in an interview with Corriere della Sera. The EU’s stability pact — rules to ensure members pursue sound public finances and coordinate fiscal policy — remains active, Dombrovskis said in the interview, specifying that ...

Bloomberg The German economy will recover from coronavirus crisis and resume growth by October “at the latest,” Economy Minister Peter Altmaier told Bild am Sonntag. Altmaier expects the German economy to grow by more than 5% in 2021 after shrinking 6% this year, the newspaper cites him as saying in an interview. The minister sees the number of jobless in ...

Bloomberg Bikes are increasingly muscling aside cars on Europe’s city streets, as coronavirus accelerates a shift towards pedal power. Even before the pandemic, bicycles were enjoying an uptick in demand from environmentally conscious consumers, but the risk of contagion on buses and subways increased the appeal. The emergence of e-bikes, which boost power with an electric motor, has removed some ...

Bloomberg Remember last earnings season? When companies were reporting their worst quarter since the financial crisis. And nobody dared guess what the future held. Bankruptcy risk was everywhere. Oh, and stocks rallied so hard that $5 trillion got added to share prices. It’s safe to say investors were in a forgiving mood back then. With stocks up 25% since, the ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia led gains in the Gulf as the earnings season started in the kingdom with a positive tone. Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index advanced as much as 0.7%. Food producer Almarai Co. JSC, the first Saudi company to deliver second-quarter numbers, gained as much as 2% after posting a 11% increase in profit. As more company results ...

Bloomberg Software provider Kinaxis Inc. surged to a record high as it completed a deal for Rubikloud Technologies to boost its capabilities in artificial intelligence (AI). Ottawa-based Kinaxis, whose clients include Unilever NV and Lockheed Martin Corp., briefly passed $4 billion in market value for the first time amid a broad rally in Canadian technology stocks. The company sells products ...

Dubai / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announced the launch of the ‘Arab Space Talents’ programme that aims to build Arab expertise in space science and technologies. Overseen by the UAE Space Agency, the programme will equip young Arab researchers, scientists, inventors and creative ...