“The warning from the World Food Programme (WFP) that an extra 265 million people could be pushed into acute food insecurity by Covid-19, almost doubling last year’s total, is based on a complex combination of factors.
“WFP’s latest warning underlines the increasing concern among experts in the field that for many the biggest impact will not be the disease, but the hunger hanging off its coat tails.
“While the majority of people suffering acute food insecurity in 2019 lived in countries affected by conflict (77 million), climate change (34 million) and economic crises (24 million people), the coronavirus has massively complicated existing crises and threatens to worsen others.”
““The crisis in South America in 2020… will be the worst in its entire history,” the agency said…
“The shriveling regional economy will plunge almost 30 million people into poverty and deepen already alarming levels of extreme poverty in some countries…”
“The prospect of a prolonged worldwide impact from the coronavirus pandemic has hardened after business leaders warned of a drawn-out recession and US health chiefs highlighted the prospect of a second wave of US cases in winter.
“As financial markets staggered under fresh blows to the global oil industry on Wednesday, a survey of thousands of bosses revealed that they fear many companies will not survive the onslaught.”
“Credit Acceptance Corp., the lender to car buyers with subprime credit scores, warned it’s seeing a sharp drop-off in payments as people shift their financial priorities to get through the coronavirus pandemic.
“As unemployment soars, borrowers are putting off payments or “reallocating resources,” Credit Acceptance said in a regulatory filing Monday…”
“The U.K. bond market looks set to face a flood of bond sales that dwarfs the current record for government borrowing set during the global financial crisis.”
“Three nights of unrest in the French capital’s northern suburbs have stoked fears of a major flare-up in deprived neighbourhoods where weeks of lockdown have exacerbated the simmering tensions between restless youths and police…
““The spark has been lit.””
“Heavily-indebted Italy has long been a bellwether for wider fears over the future of the eurozone. Such concerns have moved to the fore again in spite of the ECB’s radical easing measures, as investors worry about a surge in borrowing by Rome to tackle the viral outbreak.
““Italy is being hit on all fronts,” said James Athey, a fund manager at Aberdeen Standard Investments.”
http://archive.vn/DzmFh#selection-1869.0-1877.103
“With countries like Italy and Greece still recovering from the lingering effects of the eurozone crisis, the coronavirus pandemic is taking another heavy toll on their domestic economies.
“This could not only widen the economic disparity between Europe’s northern and southern countries, but, depending on how long the pandemic lasts, could lead to a new eurozone crisis, Lehne warned.”
https://www.vox.com/world/2020/4/21/21228578/coronavirus-europe-eu-economic-crisis-eurozone-debt
“Europe’s banks are expected to have to set aside billions for potential loan losses as well as take profit hits because of the coronavirus crisis when they start reporting results over the next two weeks…
“The region’s banks were already under pressure before the crisis with high costs, low returns, and demands to fix outdated technology.”
“South Africa said it was working to avert the financial collapse of the country’s century-old agricultural bank, after the lender to farmers across the country missed a loan repayment to a key creditor.
“The state-owned Land and Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa (Land Bank), founded in 1912, is the latest South African public enterprise to face financial difficulties…”
http://archive.vn/PjBoa#selection-1807.0-1811.177
“Australia will suffer its biggest economic contraction since the 1930s in the first half of this year due to containment measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Philip Lowe said yesterday.”
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2020/04/22/2003735048
“Oil prices continued to plummet on Wednesday, with energy market participants increasingly concerned about a building supply glut and a lack of available storage.
“International benchmark Brent crude traded at $17.41 per barrel on Wednesday morning, down more than 10%…”
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/22/meltdown-in-oil-continues-as-brent-plunges-more-than-15percent.html
“Ricardo Hausmann, an economist at Harvard University, compared the situation facing Saudi Arabia to “war being fought on at least two fronts,” according to a recent presentation for Saudi officials, seen by Bloomberg, that outlined the dual hit from the pandemic and the oil crisis.
““Each shock in itself is huge,” Hausmann wrote. “Both at the same time makes things much more complex.””
http://archive.vn/IZ6nO#selection-3015.0-3019.103
“Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that it should not be said that economic difficulties in Russia can transform into a political crisis. He also noted that the coronavirus-related problems affected the whole world.
“We do not agree with such a question as an idea,” Peskov [said].”
https://tass.com/politics/1147645
“The dollar’s movements over the past month and a half have captivated investors because the currency has become a leading indicator of how worried traders are about the economic harm from the pandemic. Spikes signal a deeper sense of dread.
“The disaster in the oil industry… is propelling the dollar even higher as the situation weighs on currencies from energy-producing nations.”
http://archive.vn/cI7Yv#selection-2479.0-2503.253
“The International Monetary Fund’s forecast of a deep global recession is likely to send investors fleeing the property market in the foreseeable future, analysts say…
“The grim outlook means investors will be cautious, dimming demand for real estate.”
“Central banks for G-7 nations spent a record sum to aid market functioning as the coronavirus pummeled financial sectors through March.
“The world’s leading monetary authorities bought nearly $1.4 trillion of financial assets over the period, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, pushing their balance sheets to record sizes to pad against economic collapse.”
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