April, 2020

• 14 April

  US debt, deficit on track to exceed $3.8trn this year

  

  Bloomberg The US federal budget deficit is on track to exceed $3.8 trillion this year even if Congress doesn’t enact any more stimulus spending, and the nation’s debt will rise to levels not seen since the country emerged from World War II, a non-partisan budget watchdog estimated. The projection by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget would put the ...

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• 14 April

  France’s lockdown is pushing economy into deeper recession

  

  Bloomberg The French government was forced to revise its economic and financial forecasts for the second time in less than a week after President Emmanuel Macron extended the lockdown to combat the coronavirus. France will base an emergency budget on economic output contracting 8% this year, instead of 6% as it had planned last week. Extra spending to support companies ...

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• 14 April

  Brazil seeks flexible fiscal goal for 2021 amid crisis

  

  Bloomberg Brazil’s economic team wants to adopt a flexible fiscal target for 2021 as uncertainties caused by the novel coronavirus make it difficult to estimate the impact of the crisis, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter. The government has until April 15 to send a bill to Congress with forecasts for next year. The bill has ...

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• 14 April

  JBS to shut Colorado beef plant

  Bloomberg JBS SA, the world’s top meat company, will shutter its beef facility in Greeley, Colorado, through April 24 amid an outbreak of the coronavirus among plant employees and neighboring communities. The Greeley facility will wind down operations over the next two days with a diminished staff to ensure existing product in the facility can be used to support food ...

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• 14 April

  Crisis gives Germany sense of vindication for ‘black zero’

  

  Bloomberg Now Germany is deploying its financial firepower to fight the coronavirus crisis, convincing the country that it was wrong to shun budget deficits for many years just got even harder. The government of Europe’s biggest economy has long faced calls by officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB), to the US administration of ...

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• 14 April

  N Korea fires missile barrage ahead of South Korea polls

  

  Bloomberg North Korea fired multiple missiles from its eastern coast on Tuesday, in a show of military might ahead of parliamentary elections in South Korea. The projectiles were fired on Tuesday from sites near Munchon and neighbouring Wonsan on the east coast, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense said in a statement. North Korea launched short-range cruise missiles from ...

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• 14 April

  Austria tests easing lockdown with few stores reopening

  

  Bloomberg Austrians lined up outside hardware and gardening stores that reopened on Tuesday after the country became one of the first in Europe to ease lockdown measures. The soft and partial restart of the economy — also one of the first to clamp down on public life to halt the spread of the coronavirus — will be eyed by others ...

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• 14 April

  US reopening hinges on testing surge

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump’s push to reopen the world’s largest economy hinges on a breakthrough that has so far eluded him: ratcheting up testing capacity to stave off another wave of coronavirus. Trump is anxious to end economy-crushing social distancing practices that have curbed the spread of the illness. He declared that he has “total” authority to reopen the country, ...

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• 14 April

  Vietnam may extend social distancing ban

  

  Bloomberg Vietnam may extend its social distancing order in provinces and cities that have a high risk of the spread of the novel coronavirus spread, the government said in a posting on its website. The government initiated a 15-day social distancing and stay-at-home order on April 1. It is now looking to divide provinces and regions of the country into ...

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• 14 April

  Doctors come under attack in India over virus stigma

  

  Bloomberg Trupti Katdare was in a slum in the central Indian city of Indore when the mob attacked. She and a group of other public-health workers had been tracking down a man who might have had contact with a recently confirmed case of the coronavirus. When they found him, he cursed at them, asking why they wanted his information and ...

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