February, 2020

• 11 February

  Hacking charges by US show China deal’s unfinished part

  

  Bloomberg The Trump administration’s indictment of Chinese military personnel over one of the biggest data thefts in US history highlights a key source of animosity remaining between the two sides after their “phase one” trade deal. The US Department of Justice announced the charges against four People’s Liberation Army members over a 2017 hack of credit reporting agency Equifax Inc, ...

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• 11 February

  Virus may cost China retail sectors billions

  

  Bloomberg The outbreak of coronavirus may have cost China’s retail and food service sectors billions of dollars in sales during the Lunar New Year week, according to a leading food and agricultural bank. Revenue lost in both retail and food services during the Lunar New Year week could range from 20% to 80%, representing a fall of $31 billion to ...

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• 11 February

  Ghosn faces Nissan in Dutch court for 1st time since escape

  

  Bloomberg Carlos Ghosn’s lawyers faced off with Nissan Motor Co in an Amsterdam court for the first time since the former executive’s dramatic escape from Tokyo last year. Ghosn is suing his former employer for 15 million euros ($16.4 million) as part of a Dutch wrongful dismissal lawsuit. At a hearing, his lawyers asked a court for access to documents ...

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• 11 February

  Singapore braces for 30% tourism drop

  

  Bloomberg Singapore could see a 25% to 30% decline in tourist arrivals and spending this year because of the coronavirus outbreak, as the industry braces for a worse impact than the 2003 Sars pandemic, the city’s tourism chief said. The city-state is losing about 18,000 to 20,000 tourists a day, and the figures could plummet further if the situation persists ...

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• 11 February

  India to lift foreign investment cap on ‘sovereign bonds’

  Bloomberg India will remove foreign investment limits on some sovereign notes as part of its attempts to get inclusion in global bond indexes, the country’s chief economic adviser said. Issuing new debt with no limits on investments by foreigners will be the first “necessary step” for the inclusion in the indexes, Krishnamurthy Subramanian, the economic adviser, said in an interview ...

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• 11 February

  China’s silent factories fuel workers’ fears of virus

  

  Bloomberg Janey Zhang, the owner of an umbrella factory in China’s east coast city of Shangyu, spends her days watching the news for coronavirus updates and fielding calls from cash-strapped employees asking when they can go back to work. “I don’t know,” says Zhang, whose Zhejiang Xingbao Umbrella Co employs about 200 workers. “We await government instructions. If it’s just ...

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• 11 February

  Energy emissions stall for first time in 3 years

  

  Bloomberg Global emissions from energy held steady in 2019 for the first time in three years. But the restraint all came from the US and Europe as developing countries boosted use of the most polluting fossil fuels. The findings from the International Energy Agency (IEA) show energy-related carbon dioxide emissions remained at a record 33.3 billion tons. While industrial countries ...

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• 11 February

  Ghana to use $1b to restructure power deals

  

  Bloomberg Ghana plans to use as much as $1 billion of the Eurobonds it sold last week to help restructure the country’s obligations to independent power producers, said Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta. The country is in talks to re-negotiate supply deals with the power companies known as IPPs. The currently take-or-pay agreements mean the government is billed even for unused ...

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• 11 February

  An anti-corruption probe isn’t AirAsia’s only challenge

  

  Asia’s largest budget carrier is in trouble, caught up in an anti-corruption investigation of Europe’s aerospace industry. Things could get worse. AirAsia Bhd. Chief Executive Officer Tony Fernandes stepped down for two months along with Chairman Kamarudin Meranun, after the airline was named in a 3.6 billion euro ($4 billion) settlement of bribery allegations against Airbus SE. Shares have fallen ...

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• 11 February

  How coronavirus could help Trump

  

  There has been plenty of talk about how the coronavirus might affect politics in China, for example by eroding trust between the Chinese public and its leadership. In the US, however, the coronavirus is likely to have the opposite effect: Namely, to make the incumbent more popular and to increase the re-election chances of President Donald Trump. How the coronavirus ...

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