British finance minister Rishi Sunak warned of hardship ahead on Wednesday as he set out plans to protect jobs and limit the economic impact of the coronavirus. Below are highlights of Sunak's speech to parliament. JOB RETENTION BONUS. "Were introducing a new policy to reward and incentivise employers who successfully bring furloughed staff back a new Jobs Retention Bonus."
British finance minister Rishi Sunak warned of hardship ahead as he set out plans on Wednesday to protect jobs and limit the economic impact of the coronavirus. "We face profound economic challenges," Sunak said in parliament, adding that rising unemployment was the biggest challenge the country faced.
Japan will prioritise efforts to digitalise its economy and better cope with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, the government said in a draft policy framework that left open how the huge cost of combating the crisis would be funded. The draft was presented at the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, the government's top economic panel, on Wednesday.
Canada is eyeing issuing longer-term debt to take advantage of low interest rates, and expects servicing costs to be lower this fiscal year than was forecast last year despite the billions in emergency spending due to COVID-19, a government source said.
Major developed economies face a surge in debt as the coronavirus crisis sparks massive fiscal stimulus, but they have time to get their houses in order, Barclays said on Wednesday. In a new report on debt in developed markets, the British bank added that policymakers won't be able to ignore worsening fiscal profiles for long.
State and local governments from Georgia to California are cutting money for schools, universities and other services as the coronavirus-induced recession wreaks havoc on their finances. Widespread job losses and closed businesses have reduced revenue from sales and income taxes, forcing officials to make agonizing choices in budgets for the new fiscal year, which started July 1 in much of the country. Governments have cut 1.5 million jobs since March, mostly in education,...
The European Commission has given its approval for Germany's proposed Economic Stabilisation Fund, Berlin's Economy and Finance ministries said on Wednesday.
German exports will drop by 15% this year and will only recover slightly in 2021, Germany's DIHK chambers of commerce said on Wednesday. Exports will rise by a single-digit percentage next year, by 7% if the situation improves significantly, DIHK foreign trade head Volker Treier said. "We will only experience disappointments in the next few months," Treier said.
Japan's government will leave out an explicit mention of its target to achieve a primary budget surplus by fiscal 2025 in its long-term economic policy roadmap for this year, a draft of the framework showed on Wednesday.
China's passenger car sales in June fell 6.5% year on year to 1.68 million units, the China Passenger Car Association said on Wednesday. Retail sales were in line with expectations and signalled a continuing recovery in the passenger car market, the association said during an online briefing. Luxury automakers' sales outpaced the overall market, CPCA Secretary-General Cui Dongshu said.
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