February, 2020

• 9 February

  Singapore frees listed local developers from home-sale rule

  

  Bloomberg Singapore home builders will have one less restriction to worry about after changes to the rules under which some real estate firms operating in the city-state sell apartments. Publicly listed housing developers with a “substantial connection to Singapore” will be allowed an exemption from the Qualifying Certificate regime, according to a statement from the Ministry of Law and Singapore ...

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• 9 February

  India, Sri Lanka discuss ways to fight terrorism, boost trade

  

  Bloomberg India and Sri Lanka agreed on Saturday to strengthen cooperation to combat terrorism and boost trade and investment. “India has been a trusted partner in Sri Lanka’s development,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said a joint briefing after meeting Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in New Delhi. New lines of credits announced in November will deepen development and cooperation, ...

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• 9 February

  VW postpones restart of China production

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG has postponed the resumption of production at its China joint ventures, in the latest sign of the coronavirus’s impact on economic activity. The carmaker cited limited travel options for its employees and said in a statement that its own supply chains were in the early stages of re-starting after production stopped for national holidays at the end ...

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• 9 February

  Some US pension funds play into China’s hands: Pompeo

  

  Bloomberg Secretary of State Michael Pompeo delivered a tough warning about China in a speech to US governors, urging caution in business dealings as Beijing looks for ways to exploit US vulnerabilities and expands repression at home. He had a pointed message for certain US state pension funds that may be investing in ways that help China’s government crack down ...

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• 9 February

  FB to improve security after hack of 29m users

  Bloomberg Facebook Inc pledged to improve security protocols to resolve a lawsuit blaming the company for a 2018 data breach that exposed personal data of 29 million users. The company will check more frequently for suspicious patterns of user activity involving access tokens, the key cards that allow users to access their accounts, among other measures outlined in a proposal ...

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• 9 February

  Johnson seeks extra boost in spending on infrastructure

  

  Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to announce a boost in infrastructure spending focused on northern England, seeking to make good on campaign pledges made before he led his Conservatives to a landslide victory in December’s general election. The programme will include 40 million pounds ($52 million) for 5G wireless networks in rural areas and investment in mass transit, ...

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• 9 February

  The ‘perplexing’ state of the US economy

  

  It’s State of the Union time, and one of the few bright spots — so it seems — is the US economy. We are at loggerheads with our traditional allies. The spreading coronavirus casts a cloud of dread. Meanwhile, the economy plods along at about a 2% annual growth rate. Though unspectacular, this has been steady enough to reduce the ...

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• 9 February

  Ireland’s Ryanair is a polluting airline Ryanair’s ‘misleading’ claims

  

  Ryanair Holdings Plc has been given a telling off by the UK’s advertising watchdog for making “misleading” claims about its carbon emissions. Ads claiming Ryanair is “Europe’s… lowest emissions airline” must be withdrawn because the Irish carrier did not fully substantiate this and other environmental boasts, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found. As the climate crisis intensifies, Ryanair probably won’t ...

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• 9 February

  Short-sellers win their bet against the Royal Mail

  One big argument against Jeremy Corbyn’s plan to re-nationalise large chunks of the British economy was that it would prove eye-wateringly expensive. Yet one of the companies in the sights of the opposition Labour Party’s leader, Royal Mail Plc, is turning out to be anything but. The postal operator’s heavily shorted shares plunged 9% on February 6 to a fresh ...

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• 9 February

  Oil will still be sickly after coronavirus

  Crude oil has had a grim start to the year, with prices hovering around $50 per barrel as China’s coronavirus epidemic shuts down swathes of the world’s second-largest economy. A rebound akin to the one that followed the end of the Sars outbreak is unlikely this time. Back in 2003, China was on a growth trajectory. The economy was also ...

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