“People in low-income and conflict-affected countries have so far largely escaped the high levels of Covid-19 infection seen in western Europe and the US, although this may be changing.
“The pandemic is killing them in different ways: lost jobs, ruined businesses, increased poverty, rising malnutrition and risk of famine, and a prospective increase in untreated, non-Covid preventable illnesses.”
“Without urgent aid to clear arrears owed to official lenders, [Zimbabwe] faces “domestic collapse”, Mthuli Ncube, finance minister, told the IMF, African Development Bank and other institutions in a letter seen by the Financial Times.”
https://www.ft.com/content/29207bc7-cd4d-4c84-ac3f-4befa00ae906
““Businesses in [Nigeria’s] food supply chains are suffering and many will go under since farmhands cannot get to work, input supplies have been curtailed and planning has become impossible. This crisis has come at the beginning of the planting season, and so many farmers cannot produce, even for the post-COVID-19 needs.””
https://guardian.ng/features/covid-19-bleak-planting-season-signals-looming-famine/
“Mohammed Alsamaa is worried about the supplies and personnel shut out of Yemen since the country’s airspace closed in mid-March…
“He’s also worried about food supplies being disrupted by the shutdown measures.
“This is already a country where malnutrition is rife.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-52493609
““The virus of poverty, hunger, and bankruptcy is more dangerous than any other virus.”
“With these words, the Chairperson of the Syrian regime’s Federation of Industry and a member of the Syrian parliament, Fares al-Shihabi, has responded to the preventive economic measures taken by the Syrian regime’s government in the past few weeks to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic.”
“Some of the world’s worst outbreaks are taking place in nations such as Brazil, Ecuador, and Turkey. The pandemic’s epicenter could easily return to Asia or move onward to Latin America.
“Beyond this public health emergency lies a devastating economic threat.”
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/03/emerging-markets-coronavirus-pandemic-economic-fallout/
“Amid the psychological rubble of the Covid-19 crisis, strands of China’s ‘New Silk Roads’ have been fused into a web of debt.
“What was a high-risk game of loans is now threatening cash-strapped countries as they struggle to combat the deadly coronavirus outbreak.”
https://asiatimes.com/2020/05/china-squeezes-debt-repayments-from-virus-hit-nations/
“As long as the United States is struggling to combat the pandemic, there will be no improvement for China’s economy. Our business model is to produce about 85 to 90 percent of our products for export. In south China, 80 percent of private companies rely on exports, just like our company. How can we ever rely on China’s domestic demand? All our production is geared for export.
“No export means bankrupt factories. Bankruptcy means the Chinese will become jobless and not have income. It’s a chain reaction.”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/many-chinese-export-companies-face-bankruptcy_3312077.html
“China’s upcoming defence budget will be only slightly hit by the economic downturn that followed the coronavirus outbreak, and a modest increase is still expected as it continues to develop its military capability, analysts said.”
“The major Chinese commercial banks once had more dollar assets than liabilities. Not anymore.
“Chinese banks now owe more dollars than they are owed. In short, China’s Banks Are Running Out of Dollars.”
https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/economics/demand-for-dollars-is-high-chinese-banks-running-out
“The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, claimed on Sunday there is “enormous evidence” the coronavirus outbreak originated in a Chinese laboratory – but did not provide any of the alleged evidence.
“Pompeo’s claims, made in an interview with ABC’s This Week, represented an escalation in rhetoric.”
“U.S. governors, facing persistent if not escalating protests in their respective states against coronavirus-related lockdown measures, have become increasingly frustrated…
“…with a top White House official tasked with tackling the pandemic calling the demonstrators’ behaviors “devastatingly worrisome.””
http://www.china.org.cn/world/2020-05/04/content_76005371.htm
“Misery loves company when it comes to credit ratings in a retail world shut down by COVID-19.
“While J. Crew Group Inc., Neiman Marcus Group and J.C. Penney Co. Inc. are all seen as filing for bankruptcy within the next few weeks, the list of companies struggling with weak credit ratings and at risk of some kind of default are growing.”
“While aggressive federal and state intervention and temporary corporate measures have prevented a surge in evictions and foreclosures, the housing and rental market has fallen into a severe crisis that threatens the ability of millions of Americans to stay in their homes even if the coronavirus pandemic eases in the coming months.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/03/may-rent-mortgages-coronavirus/
“The majority of eligible Americans have now received stimulus checks through the CARES Act, except for the excluded workers — the forgotten ones — who we depend on in many facets of our lives.
“These forgotten — but essential — workers pick the ripe fruits we eat; they cook the warm meals at our favorite take-out restaurants; and they sanitize checkout devices at grocery stores late into the night…”
https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/495690-the-forgotten-ones
“Welcome to the post-pandemic U.S. economy. The biggest companies are getting even bigger.
“Midsize players are running on fumes.
“Brick-and-mortar stores are struggling to get financing just to make it to next month. Startups — the building blocks of a competitive economy — are disappearing.”
“Business confidence at British companies has sunk to an all-time low because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey of finance chiefs at the largest UK firms.”
Just in case you thought this had gone away, lol:
“The Irish border question threatens to derail Brexit talks again as the depth of the row over the EU’s desire to have an office in Belfast is revealed.”
“The pandemic clouds the outlook for the global economy with a high degree of uncertainty. Demand, supply and liquidity shocks to the world economy set the stage for a deep global recession, worse than that of the 2008 financial crisis, the report said.
“The Greek economy is exposed to external shocks due to a considerable dependency on tourism and transportation receipts…”
“Factories across Europe have suffered their bleakest month in decades as the coronavirus crisis has wreaked havoc with supply chains, production and demand, new figures show.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/europe-pmi-eurozone-coronavirus-factories-slump-080250140.html
“Asia’s factory activity was ravaged in April, business surveys showed on Monday, and the outlook dimmed further as government restrictions on movement to contain the coronavirus outbreak froze global production and slashed demand.”
“Banking is the riskiest business of all. Huge amounts of debt are covered by skinny amounts of equity. As the interface between borrowers and lenders, banking is vitally important to the health of the economy… [in 1992]… banks were left nursing massive losses, the government was put under extreme pressure and investors lost heavily.
“Could it happen again? You can bank on it.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-04/are-australias-big-four-banks-equipped-for-recession/12210538
“The coronavirus pandemic spurred a turn toward nationalism around the world. Now banks are in the vanguard of the movement, central to government rescue efforts in the face of the worst recession since the Great Depression.
“Intesa Sanpaolo, headquartered in Milan, is reinforcing an “Italy first” lending policy. Beijing-based Bank of China is retreating to its home market after a big push into the Middle East. In Frankfurt, Deutsche Bank put Indian expansion plans on hold while throwing resources at Germany. Bank of America is among several US institutions being more selective in their European lending.”
“Oil prices declined on Monday after three days of gains as worries of a supply glut resurfaced on new data showing production levels were higher in April.
“The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) saw production surge by the most in almost 30 years in April, a Bloomberg news agency survey showed, as countries kept pumping vast amounts of crude…”
https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/oil-prices-fall-producers-pumping-crude-200504014505426.html
“In just over a month, scores of drilling rigs have been dismantled and tucked away in storage yards. Pump jacks, those piston pumps that lift crude out of the ground, have seesawed to a standstill as operators shut down wells.
“We’ve had our ups and downs, even over the last 20 years, but this feels very different,” said Matthew Hale, president of S.O.C. Industries, a pump truck and chemical services company that has operated in the Permian for 19 years.”
“The days when stock and bond prices could be seen as a reliable indicator of the health of a nation’s economy are over, it seems. Central banks now pump in money which serves to reinflate bombed-out financial securities and make a nonsense of traditional risk measures…
“Do these measures signal our ability to control the ups and downs of the global economy?
“Or we are storing up trouble by staving off a mega correction that can only become more painful the longer it is delayed?”
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