December, 2020

• 31 December

  Russia opens new criminal case against Kremlin critic Navalny

  Bloomberg Russia stepped up pressure on opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who survived a nerve-agent attack he and Western governments have blamed on the Kremlin, opening a new criminal case against him for alleged fraud. The country’s Investigative Committee said Navalny had spent 356 million rubles ($8 million) on personal purposes from donations transferred to various funds, including the Anti-Corruption Foundation ...

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• 30 December

  Italy bets on a low-tech plan to green economy, save jobs

  

  Bloomberg Italy is betting that a tax scheme to encourage home renovations will green its economy and create jobs. On the face of it, this low-tech approach is at odds with the European Union’s aim of promoting climate and innovation in exchange for billions of euros of aid money. But the government is convinced that paying citizens to make their ...

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• 30 December

  UK house price growth rises to six-year high

  

  Bloomberg UK house price growth rises to a six-year high in December, rounding off a strong 2020 for the market that defied a wider economic downturn. Values climbed 7.3% from a year earlier to an average of 230,920 pounds ($312,800), Nationwide Building Society said on Wednesday. They increased 0.8% from a month earlier. The housing market has boomed in 2020 ...

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• 30 December

  Home prices in 20 US cities see biggest rise since 2014

  

  Bloomberg A measure of home prices in 20 US cities rose in October by the most since 2014 as ultra-low mortgage rates and increased buyer appetite for more space depleted housing inventory. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index of property values climbed 7.95% from the same month the previous year, data showed. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists ...

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• 30 December

  England faces wider lockdown

  Bloomberg More areas of England are set to be placed under lockdown, as the new coronavirus strain puts growing pressure on hospitals. People living in London, Essex and Kent should behave as if they have Covid-19, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in an interview with LBC radio on Wednesday. The spread of the new variant means more parts of the ...

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• 30 December

  Conte signals end to rampant spending on debt risks in Italy

  

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte warned that Italy is reaching the limits on how much debt the government can take on, even as the European Union opens the door to further borrowing. While Italy is pushing ahead with a 38 billion-euro ($47 billion) budget for next year, the growing deficit is becoming unsustainable, Conte said during his year-end press conference ...

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• 30 December

  Brexit border chaos forces truckers to shun UK deliveries

  

  Bloomberg European freight forwarders are rejecting contracts to take loads into the UK due to fears the chaos at Dover could be repeated post-Brexit. Transporeon, a German software company that monitors real-time data on freight traffic and rates for more than 100,000 logistics service providers, said a “dramatic number” of freight forwarders had declined to take cargo into the UK ...

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• 30 December

  Mainland cash chasing HK stocks after record year

  

  Bloomberg In a year disrupted by a global pandemic, political upheaval and abrupt setbacks for some of Hong Kong’s biggest stocks, investors point to one constant as to why 2021 looks brighter: the relentless levels of money coming in. Mainland investors have bought a net HK$666 billion ($86 billion) of the city’s shares, easily the most since both of Hong ...

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• 30 December

  Dollar slips, US futures advance in thin trading

  

  Bloomberg Trading across global markets was subdued in one of the final sessions of the year, with the dollar weakening and US equity futures gaining. Contracts on the S&P 500 added 0.3 percent as the US government started sending $600 stimulus checks to Americans. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index edged higher in thin trading. Bitcoin continued its frenetic rally, ...

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• 30 December

  Malaysia’s economic ties with UAE booming: Sultan Abdullah

  

  ABU DHABI / WAM A remarkable growth in bilateral trade and tourism between the UAE and Malaysia is an indicator of huge economic potential, the King of Malaysia told Emirates News Agency (WAM) in an exclusive interview. “The UAE has been one of Malaysia’s main trading partners in this region. In 2019, total trade between Malaysia and the UAE was ...

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