As fashion retailers shutter their storefronts across Europe and North America due to the coronavirus, some of the world’s most vulnerable workers are feeling the pain — and getting shafted. In Bangladesh, garment factories have already furloughed more than 1 million workers thanks to at least $3 billion in cancelled and postponed orders. Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, a key hub ...

The Covid-19 epidemic is a fight with an invisible enemy. What’s also worrying is that we just don’t know how bad the disease really is. Many people wonder whether we’re overestimating its deadliness, since countries find it impossible to test those with few or no symptoms. The case fatality rate is the ratio of coronavirus deaths to the number of ...

Lakeside shopping centre, just outside of London, is a mecca of consumerism. It’s situated in the county of Essex, which loves shopping so much that a reality TV show captures the exploits of its glamorous, bauble-buying residents. But since last week, the mall has been open for only essential purchases, in line with government guidance. Its owner Intu Properties Plc ...

Bloomberg Oil held near $20 a barrel as Saudi Aramco’s output surged above 12 million barrels a day, but Russia said it would refrain from further production hikes. Crude futures in New York were little changed on Wednesday, following a record decline in the first quarter. While state-run Aramco’s oil supply has surpassed 12 million barrels a day and is ...

Dubai / WAM Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) announced that it ended Q1 2020 with available liquidity of approximately $2.8 billion. DAE’s owned, managed and mandated-to-manage fleet exceeded 400 aircraft. During the said period, DAE sold or novated 15 aircraft, acquired 4 aircraft and transitioned or extended leases on 8 aircraft. Commenting on announcement, Firoz Tarapore, DAE’s Chief Executive Officer, said, ...

DUBAI / WAM Dubai Economy launched a ‘Price Monitor’ portal to track daily prices of staple foods and essentials making sure that consumers continue to get their basic needs at fair prices in spite of the precautionary measures being adopted in view of the coronavirus (Covid-19). A dedicated portal – Price.ded.ae – has also been launched to strengthen communication with ...

Bloomberg India kicks off its fiscal year with revenues under severe strain. A prolonged slowdown in the economy depressed tax collections in the financial year that ended on Tuesday, latest official data show. As India now conducts the world’s biggest lockdown, budget pressures are set to worsen. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has already outlined a virus relief package of $22.5 ...

Dubai / WAM Total volumes on the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) in March totalled 1.8 million contracts, valued at $45.133 billion. The Average Daily Volume (ADV) throughout the same month registered 81,850 contracts. As the Covid-19 pandemic causes volatile swings in markets across the globe, investors are making increasing use of Exchange’s derivatives products and services as risk ...

Bloomberg Factories around the world suffered one of their grimmest months on record in March, as the coronavirus led to mass shutdowns and wreaked havoc on supply chains. Figures from Asia and Europe showed measures of manufacturing activity dropped sharply, with some at their lowest since the financial crisis more than a decade ago. In Italy, an index of output ...

DUBAI / WAM The Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) launched the first issue from a series of reports to tackle the different challenges that organisations in Dubai and the world will face once the Covid-19 global outbreak subsides, titled “Life After Covid-19: Workspaces”. The report, launched on Wednesday, looks into the future of work post the novel coronavirus, the notion of ...