BORROWERS QUEUE FOR AID FROM U.K. AND EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANKS. Borrowers have claimed about €1.3 trillion, or $1.5 trillion, of the European Central Bank’s pool of loans available for economic recovery, a record amount. At the same time, the Bank of England has added another £100 billion to its budget for buying government bonds, raising...
Tag: jun 23 2020
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JAPAN
JAPAN GRAPPLES WITH DEFLATION. Japan, which in the 1990s became the first modern economy to struggle with deflation, is facing falling prices again. In May, consumer prices fell at their fastest pace in more than four years and the rate of inflation struck a 14-month low. On 16 June, the Bank of Japan said that...
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CHINA
HONG KONG BANKRUPTCIES WORST SINCE 2003 SARS EPIDEMIC. From February through April, personal bankruptcies in Hong Kong rose 12.5 percent compared to the same period in 2019, with analysts saying the number will continue to climb. Personal bankruptcies in the city shot up from just six in April to 2,079 the following month, while business...
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EUROPE
UNEMPLOYMENT AND DESPAIR RISING AMONG EUROPE’S YOUNG ADULTS. Italy’s unemployment rate sloped down from 8 percent in March to 6.3 percent in April. The decline came not from the country’s economy adding jobs but from people, especially young adults, who have stopped looking for work. Even before the pandemic, 27.8 percent of Italians ages 20...
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CONSUMER SPENDING SPIKES IN MAY
As stores reopened across the country in May, shoppers flocked to restock needed items and to splurge on indulgences to celebrate softened restrictions. Although May’s monthly sales spiked up 17.7 percent from April’s, the largest month-to-month jump on record, sales were still 8 percent below February’s and 62 percent less than those in May 2019....
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CAR SALES CRASH
In the U.S., Tesla has seen California registrations for its new cars topple 16 percent in April and 70 percent in May compared to a year earlier. Industry-wide car registrations in the state were down 52 percent over the same period. Across 24 states tracked by research firm Dominion Enterprises, registrations of new Teslas were...
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AMC THEATER CHAIN TO REOPEN MOST MOVIE HOUSES BY AUGUST
AMC Entertainment Holdings, the world’s largest movie theater chain, plans to reopen almost all of its U.S. venues by 24 July, in time for the planned release of movie studios’ postponed summer films. About 450 of the company’s 600-plus American theaters will open on 17 July, followed by another 150 on 24 July, after the...
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U.S. AD SPENDING TO DROP 13 PERCENT
When businesses go down, ad spending drops. In the U.S. advertisers will spend 13 percent less than they did in 2019 levels this year to $207.9 billion, predicts GroupM, a division of WPP PLC, the world’s largest ad buyer. Spending on television ads will decline 11 percent, the company expects, and 3 percent in digital...
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CARNIVAL CRUISES REPORT RECORD LOSS
To further illustrate the sharp decline in tourism and why, with COVID-Fear ingrained in people, it will not rebound quickly. Carnival Corp., with 27 ships and nine brands of cruise lines, reported a record preliminary loss of $4.37 billion for its quarter ending 31 May, compared to a profit of $451 million during the same...
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U.S. TRAVEL SPENDING TO FALL 40 PERCENT IN 2020
With COVID Fear still running rampant among the general population and media spreading pandemonium of increasing virus cases and a second wave to hit, travel and tourism sectors, we forecast, will be hit harder than what the business media’s “experts” predict. To date, it is estimated that people will take about 30 percent fewer trips...