March, 2020

• 24 March

  Covid-19 crisis is for real

  

  Few words are more overused in our debates than “crisis”. We have many — the education crisis, the inequality crisis and the environmental crisis, to name just a few. The word suggests an impending calamity unless we take instant action. The reality is that most crises are not calamities. They’re stubborn problems that, for one reason or another, defy a ...

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• 24 March

  Can SoftBank erode Alibaba stake?

  

  Just six weeks ago, Chairman Masayoshi Son was crowing about the value of SoftBank Group Corp and brushing off the notion that he should sell his prized stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd after a terrible quarter and massive asset writedowns. Things change. In a surprise announcement on March 23, the Japanese conglomerate said it plans to peddle or monetise ...

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• 24 March

  Metals buckle under virus double whammy

  Lockdowns imposed to control the coronavirus have battered China’s appetite for everything from coal to copper, pushing stockpiles of raw materials higher and global prices lower. The next crunch could come from supply. The risk of an outbreak is growing in ill-prepared producer countries, with mandatory quarantines and border shutdowns threatening to choke off production. Prices of bulk commodities are ...

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• 24 March

  Unshackle the banks to prevent deep recession

  Unlike in 2008, when the banking sector brought about the financial crisis, today it can help keep the economy from suffering a deep recession — but only if reforms enacted by regulators in the last decade are relaxed. Central banks around the world have quickly sprung to action cutting interest rates and reactivating various financial crisis era programs. Although these ...

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• 24 March

  The lessons from Italy’s coronavirus mistakes

  

  Italy is doubling down on its lockdown strategy to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, halting all non-essential economic activities for two weeks. There are early signs that these draconian steps are paying off, but the human and economic costs will be steep. The government made mistakes, ones that the rest of the Western world should have learned from ...

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• 24 March

  Refusing free money is telltale sign of fear

  

  Fear is when you want to pick up the shiny nickel lying in the road, but freeze at the sound of the approaching steamroller. The currency market equivalent of this is a widening basis swap — free money that banks are too scared to pocket. For the fourth time in the past decade, the fear gauge is starting to go ...

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• 24 March

  Social distancing and fiscal stimulus amid Covid-19

  

  Across the world, as governments take their first economic stimulus measures to address the Covid-19 crisis, debate is intensifying over the right form and size of that assistance. But this discussion hasn’t yet come to grips with five fundamental realities: First, mandating social distancing in response to the Covid-19 crisis requires socialising the economic costs of doing so. We as ...

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• 23 March

  Covid-19: SCCI highlights challenges facing private sector

  

  Sharjah / WAM The Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) on Monday held its first video conference meeting, as part of the remote working system and the precautionary measures taken to maintain the health and safety of the employees and the customers. The meeting was also in line with the preventive measures adopted by the UAE government in light ...

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• 23 March

  Obaid Al Tayer attends G20 emergency meet

  

  ABU DHABI / WAM Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, on Monday participated in a virtual meeting with the G20 ministers of finance and central bank governors, to discuss ways to unite international efforts to address the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and lessen its economic and social impact on the region and the world. Al Tayer reiterated ...

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• 23 March

  Empower saves 326mn gallons of potable water

  DUBAI / WAM Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower) announced that it has saved 326 million gallons of potable water in 2019, which is equivalent to the amount of water in 593 Olympic swimming pools. The announcement was made marking World Water Day, which is held on March 22 every year since 1993, to highlight the importance of fresh water ...

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