May, 2020

• 6 May

  Recession deepens in Europe’s south amid lockdown damage

  

  Bloomberg Italy and Spain, the two European countries most severely hit by the coronavirus, are suffering even deeper slumps after record contractions in the first quarter. Lockdowns that shut hotels and restaurants meant companies experienced unprecedented declines in output and new orders in April, and cut jobs like never before in the history of IHS Markit’s Purchasing Managers’ Surveys. Prospects ...

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• 6 May

  Sweden’s ‘gentler’ lockdown to limit economic damage

  Bloomberg Sweden’s “relatively gentle lockdown strategy” will limit the downturn in its economy compared to those in other Nordic countries, according to analysts writing in SEB’s outlook report. The region’s biggest economy will nevertheless be severely tested by the corona crisis with SEB expecting Swedish GDP to shrink by almost 7% in 2020, making it the largest drop in modern ...

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• 6 May

  General Motors to raise $2b loan to boost liquidity

  

  Bloomberg General Motors Co. is in discussions with banks to raise a new $2 billion loan to increase liquidity as it deals with a continuing slump in consumer demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The loan is structured as a 364-day revolving credit facility and is a precautionary measure to raise company’s liquidity, the people said, asking not to be ...

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• 6 May

  US extends deadline to return PPP loans

  

  Bloomberg The Trump administration extended the date that companies can return loans from a popular coronavirus relief program without paying a penalty by one week to May 14. The US Treasury Department and Small Business Administration (SBA) had set May 7 as the date for firms that had improperly taken loans from the Paycheck Protection Program to repay them, but ...

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• 6 May

  Sunak looks at options to bring UK furlough support to end

  

  Bloomberg Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is examining ways to move millions of workers off government support and back into their jobs as the UK leaves its lockdown. In March, as the UK went into lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus, Sunak announced a furlough program where workers received 80% of their wage to stay home. It’s now ...

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• 6 May

  Illinois delays $1.2bn debt sale after penalty soars

  Bloomberg Illinois delayed the planned auction of $1.2 billion of short-term debt as it faces record-high penalties to borrow on Wall Street because of the deep financial hit the state is being dealt by the coronavirus shutdown. The worst-rated state had planned to sell about $1.2 billion of short-term tax-exempt general-obligation debt on Wednesday, its first borrowing during the pandemic, ...

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• 6 May

  Pompeo has no evidence virus escaped from Wuhan lab: China

  

  Bloomberg China fired back at US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, saying he has no evidence to back up claims that the virus that causes Covid-19 escaped from a lab in the central city of Wuhan. The US attacks on China were part of an election year strategy by President Donald Trump’s Republican Party ahead of this year’s election, Chinese ...

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• 6 May

  Trump supports Putin’s N-powers summit plan

  

  Bloomberg US President Donald Trump supports Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s proposal to hold a summit of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the American ambassador to Moscow said in an interview with a Russian news service. Trump sent a message recently to President Putin describing the initiative as a “good idea,” the Interfax news service cited ...

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• 6 May

  Italy’s Conte insists he’ll serve out full term

  

  Bloomberg Italy’s Giuseppe Conte is insisting that he’ll serve out his full term as premier as tensions within his ruling coalition build up amid a struggle to restart the crippled economy. The current government is certain to reach the end of its term in 2023, Conte told newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano in an interview published on Wednesday. “The forces of ...

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• 6 May

  ‘Orban’s Hungary is no longer a democracy’

  

  Bloomberg Hungary should no longer be considered a democracy after an unprecedented consolidation of power by the European Union member’s leader, according to an annual survey of countries that once lay behind the Iron Curtain. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s dismantling of checks and balances over the past decade, including a decision to indefinitely rule by decree triggered by the coronavirus ...

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