Business

WASHINGTON, May 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The IMF approved loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars for Mali and Ethiopia to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The Washington-based crisis lender has stepped up its global financing efforts in recent weeks to help countries weather the coronavirus crisis.

The IMF board granted $411 million to Ethiopia on the Horn of Africa to help relieve the pandemic’s effects on its fast-growing economy.

BEIRUT, May 1 (NNN-Xinhua) — Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced a comprehensive financial plan to save the country from its financial and economic crisis.

“This strategy is a clear roadmap aimed at managing the government’s public finances. We are on the right track to save Lebanon from its crisis,” Diab said during a televised speech following a meeting for the government to put the end touches on the plan.

Diab explained that the strategy is based on six pillars including the financial, economic, banking, monetary, social security and development factors.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday his hard-fought trade deal with China was now of secondary importance to the coronavirus pandemic and he threatened new tariffs on Beijing, as his administration crafted retaliatory measures over the outbreak.

Trump’s sharpened rhetoric against China reflected his growing frustration with Beijing over the pandemic, which has cost tens of thousands of lives in the United States alone, sparked an economic contraction and threatened his chances of re-election in November.

30 April 2020; MEMO: The volume of electronic commerce (e-commerce) in Turkey has grown 39 per cent in 2019, according to a report published by Turkey’s Informatics Industry Association (TÜBİSAD) yesterday.

In the report, the association stressed the upward trend of the sector despite global trade wars and uncertainties in global political conjuncture.

30 April 2020; MEMO: US President Donald Trump is considering all options available to him to make Saudi Arabia pay for the oil price war that it started, Oilprice.com revealed on Tuesday.

30 April 2020; MEMO: Finnish customs officers have rejected 104,000 kilogrammes of oranges from Israel after discovering traces of Bromopropylate, a pesticide banned in the EU, on the produce.

Authorities say they rejected eight of 16 consignments of oranges received from Israel between February and mid-April because of the presence of the banned pesticide.

New Delhi, Apr 30 (PTI) Reliance Industries on Thursday reported a 38.7 per cent drop in fourth quarter net profit at Rs 6,348 crore on weak energy and petrochemical business.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 10,362 crore in January-March 2019.

Reliance announced a rights issue of Rs 53,125 crore, which it said was the biggest in India. The ratio would be 1:15 at a price of Rs 1,257.

Tokyo, Apr 30 (AP) Under Japan's coronavirus state of emergency, people have been asked to stay home. Many are not. Some still have to commute to their jobs despite risks of infection, while others continue to dine out, picnic in parks and crowd into grocery stores with scant regard for social distancing.

On Wednesday, the first day of the Golden Week holidays that run through May 5, Tokyo's leafy Shiba Park was packed with families with small children, day camping in tents.

Beijing, Apr 30 (AP) China's manufacturing activity weakened in April as the coronavirus pandemic clobbered global consumer demand, hampering Beijing's efforts to revive the world's second-largest economy, two surveys showed on Thursday.

China became the first major economy to reopen factories in March after the ruling Communist Party declared victory over the outbreak. But the United States, Europe and other major markets have yet to lift controls that are keeping consumers from spending.

United Nations, Apr 30 (PTI) Almost 1.6 billion workers in the informal economy, nearly half of the global workforce, face an immediate danger of losing their livelihoods due to the continued sharp decline in working hours because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the International Labour Organization has said.

More than 430 million enterprises in hard-hit sectors such as retail and manufacturing risk "serious disruption", the UN agency added.