January, 2021

• 27 January

  Online sales ignite in corners of world late to revolution

  

  Bloomberg Years from now when the pandemic’s impact on global business is analysed, it’s likely that the most lucrative change will be how it pushed—or actually shoved—massive markets into the modern e-commerce era. In many countries, online shopping hadn’t been easy because of underdeveloped infrastructure and the reluctance, or inability, of consumers to use banks and electronic payment. That stalled ...

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• 27 January

  Levi expands Target partnership

  Bloomberg Levi Strauss & Co is expanding its partnership with retailer Target Corp well beyond blue jeans. The agreement will mark Levi’s first home-goods partnership, with new products including tableware and pillows, the companies said in a statement. The tie-up will also broaden its Red Tab brand within Target stores, with in-store displays planned at more than 500 locations by ...

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• 27 January

  Joe Biden presses Putin in first call over cyberattack, Ukraine

  

  Bloomberg President Joe Biden held his first phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, pressing him on issues from the poisoning of opposition leader Alexey Navalny to the massive hack of US computer systems that’s been linked to Moscow. The Kremlin confirmed that the call took place Tuesday, describing the conversation as “businesslike and frank.” The leaders also talked about ...

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• 27 January

  Philippines protests China law on coast guard’s weapon use

  

  Bloomberg The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest against China’s law giving its coast guard more freedom to fire on foreign vessels, the Southeast Asian nation’s foreign affairs minister said. “While enacting law is a sovereign prerogative, this one — given the area involved or for that matter the open South China Sea — is a verbal threat of war ...

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• 27 January

  Tunisia premier promises broad economic reform

  Bloomberg Tunisian lawmakers approved cabinet changes proposed by Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi after riot police blocked protesters from nearing the assembly amid a rising wave of discontent in the birthplace of the Arab Spring. On Tuesday, 11 new ministers proposed for departments ranging from health and justice to the interior obtained more than the minimum 109 votes needed in the ...

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• 27 January

  Security tightened after protesting farmers stormed New Delhi

  

  Bloomberg India’s government increased security in the capital New Delhi after thousands of protesting farmers broke police barricades and stormed key landmarks in a serious escalation of monthslong demonstrations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new agriculture laws. By Wednesday most demonstrators had returned to protest sites on the outskirts of the city following calls from one of the largest farm ...

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• 27 January

  Conte’s gambit may return him to power in Italy

  Bloomberg The resignation of Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has sparked a fresh round of back-room plotting and negotiating as the pandemic rages and the economy tanks. The biggest question is whether he will get back in the saddle. Conte is a survivor, but he has no political party of his own as he tries to recruit a new, broader ...

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• 27 January

  European economy lags peers as vaccine mess deepens slump

  

  Bloomberg Europe’s economy is starting to follow the familiar script of lagging its international peers when recovering from a crisis. That was the upshot of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) forecasts, which downgraded the growth outlook for 2021 across Europe and underscored a generally poorer performance compared with China and the US. Such diverging fortunes reflect the stringency of lockdowns ...

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• 27 January

  Argentina posts first trade deficit since 2018 after port strike

  

  Bloomberg Argentina posted its first trade deficit since August 2018 as exports collapsed after a lengthy strike in some port operations. The country recorded a trade deficit of $364 million in December, compared to a $500 million surplus forecast by economists in a Bloomberg survey, government data published Tuesday showed. While imports grew 25% in annual terms driven by an ...

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• 27 January

  Robust cloud demand lifts Microsoft sales by 17%

  

  Bloomberg Microsoft Corp. said fiscal second-quarter sales rise 17%, a faster clip than analysts projected, thanks to buoyant demand for corporate cloud-computing services and software tools that support at-home workers. Revenue in the period ended December 31 rise to $43.1 billion, the Redmond, Washington-based software maker said in a statement. That exceeded the $40.2 billion average estimate of analysts polled ...

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