RBI steps up loan relief, liquidity for India’s coronavirus fight

Bloomberg India’s central bank announced new loan-relief measures for small businesses and pledged to inject 500 billion rupees ($6.8 billion) of liquidity to support the economy against a second deadly coronavirus wave. Some businesses will be eligible for loan restructuring to give them more time to repay debt and keep them going through the pandemic, Reserve Bank of India Governor ...

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UAE central bank, SWIFT collaborate to enhance cross-border payments

ABU DHABI / WAM The central bank of the UAE (CBUAE) has announced that it has been working with SWIFT on an initiative to further enhance the speed and transparency of cross-border payments. The CBUAE will be the first central bank globally to implement such an initiative. The integration between the CBUAE’s domestic UAE Funds Transfer System (UAEFTS) and SWIFT’s ...

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DGCX sees INR quanto, silver future contracts surge in April

Dubai / WAM During the month of April, the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) registered a monthly Average Open Interest (AOI) of 179,554 contracts. The DGCX’s Indian Rupee Quanto Futures Contract recorded a year-on-year (Y-O-Y) Average Daily Volume (ADV) growth of 562% during the month, as market participants looked to hedge their risk amid market volatility. Additionally, the DGCX’s ...

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Supporting armed forces a strategic priority: President

Abu Dhabi / WAM President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has said that supporting and advancing the UAE Armed Forces and defence industries will remain a strategic priority. In a statement to mark the 45th anniversary of the Armed Forces Unification Day, carried by the ‘Nation Shield’ journal, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed paid tribute to ...

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UAE reports 1,952 new recoveries from Covid-19

ABU DHABI / WAM The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) conducted 204,724 additional Covid-19 tests over the past 24 hours, using state-of-the-art medical testing equipment. In a statement, the ministry stressed its aim to continue expanding scope of testing nationwide to facilitate early detection of coronavirus cases and carry out the necessary treatment. As part of its intensified testing ...

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Armed Forces unification a historic achievement: VP

Dubai / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said that Armed Forces unification was a historic achievement that underscored the perseverance of the Founding Fathers and their determination to advance and establish the Union’s foundations. In a statement to the Nation Shield, the official journal ...

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UAE-CREF awards contract to build clean-energy project in Dominica

Abu Dhabi / WAM The UAE-Caribbean Renewable Energy Fund (UAE-CREF), the largest renewable energy investment of its type in the region, which is fully financed by Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), announced the signing of an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to build a hurricane-resistant clean energy project worth $50 million in Dominica. Masdar, one of the world’s ...

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Replacing coal plants with renewables is cheaper 80% of time

Bloomberg About 80% of US coal plants are now more expensive to keep running than to swap out for new wind and solar capacity, according to a report from Energy Innovation, a non-partisan climate and energy think tank. While renewables cost more than fossil energy for much of the last century, prices for new wind and solar have dropped so ...

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How many Airbuses can the EU invent? Too many

If the Trump presidency and Brexit convinced the European Union to start acting more like a sovereign power and less like a supermarket, Covid-19 has shown there’s a depressingly long journey ahead. First there was fighting over protective medical equipment. Then the bungled start to its vaccine rollout. Now the scale of the bloc’s dependence on the US and Asia ...

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Europe’s bankruptcy paradox

When Covid-19 first plunged Europe into lockdown last spring, there were plausible predictions of a tidal wave of corporate insolvencies. That hasn’t happened, at least not yet. The number of companies declaring bankruptcy declined by about a fifth in the euro area last year, even as economic output contracted more than 6%. Firms were saved by overwhelming government support, including ...

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