SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia has entered its first recession since 1991 after the economy shrank 7 percent in the second quarter, official figures showed Wednesday, as the country reels from the coronavirus pandemic. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said it was the fastest quarterly contraction on record and ends a three-decade run of economic growth that was undented even by the global financial crisis. The bureau’s head of national accounts, Michael Smedes, said the […]
Tag: economy
Coronavirus pushes leading world economies into record slumps
PARIS, France (AFP) — Brazil and India reported historic second-quarter drops in national economic output this week, a situation seen in almost all leading global economies owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Only China, where the outbreak was first reported, has escaped a recession. Here are second-quarter changes in gross domestic product (GDP) compared with the previous quarter for many of the world’s top economies. Unless stated otherwise, the figures are from the national statistics […]
Australia enters recession after three decades of growth
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia has entered its first recession since 1991 after the economy shrank 7 percent in the second quarter, official figures showed Wednesday, as the country reels from the coronavirus pandemic. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said it was the fastest quarterly contraction on record and ends a three-decade run of economic growth that was undented even by the global financial crisis. The bureau’s head of national accounts, Michael Smedes, said the […]
Government urges UK to get back to work as job losses mount
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain’s government on Friday urged people to return to work amid concern about the impact of the coronavirus lockdown on the economy and struggling high street businesses. “It is now safe to go back to work,” Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told Sky News television in an interview. “I think there’s a limit, just in human terms, to remote working. And there are things where you just need to spark […]
Most Asia stocks up on Fed rates news, Tokyo hit by Abe report
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Expectations US interest rates will stay ultra low for as long as needed helped lift Asian equities on Friday, though Tokyo tumbled on reports Japan’s prime minister was set to resign for health reasons. In a much-anticipated speech, Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell said it would be in no rush to reel in inflation, even if it overshoots the central bank’s two percent target, instead opting for an average […]
Peru, Argentine economies post huge falls
LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru’s year-on-year GDP fell by 30 percent in the second quarter of 2020 as it was badly affected by coronavirus containment measures, the government said on Thursday. Meanwhile, Argentina’s state statistics institute said its economy contracted by almost 13 percent in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period last year. In Peru, mandatory confinement was in place throughout the whole of the second quarter and was only […]
World Bank chief warns COVID-19 pandemic has driven 100 million people to extreme poverty
Numbers could go higher if pandemic drags on by Heather SCOTT Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The coronavirus pandemic may have driven as many as 100 million people back into extreme poverty, World Bank President David Malpass warned Thursday. The Washington-based development lender previously estimated that 60 million people would fall into extreme poverty due to COVID-19, but the new estimate puts the deterioration at 70 to 100 million, and he […]
Thailand’s economy shrinks most in more than 20 years
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Thailand’s economy suffered its worst contraction since the Asian financial crisis more than two decades ago, data showed Monday, as the coronavirus shattered the country’s crucial tourism industry. The kingdom has largely escaped the worst of the disease — registering 3,300 cases and 58 deaths despite being the first country outside China to register an infection in January. But pandemic-spurred lockdowns brought the economy to a staggering halt, shrinking 12.2 percent […]
Japan economy shrinks record 7.8% in April-June
by Hiroshi HIYAMA Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s economy shrank a record 7.8 percent in the April-June quarter, the worst contraction in the nation’s modern history, data showed Monday, as the coronavirus deepens the country’s economic woes. The contraction from the previous quarter was slightly worse than expectations but is still significantly less severe than declines seen in many other industrial economies. Still, it is the worst economic contraction for Japan […]
Malaysian economy shrinks most in more than 20 years
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Malaysia’s economy suffered its worst contraction in more than 20 years during the second quarter, hit by a collapse in global trade and tough curbs to contain the coronavirus, the central bank said Friday. The economy shrank 17.1 percent on-year in April-June — the first since the global financial crisis in 2009 and the deepest since the Asian financial turmoil 11 years before that — putting it on course […]
UK in record recession after economy shrinks by fifth
by Jean-Baptiste OUBRIER LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain’s economy shrank by a fifth in the second quarter, higher than any European neighbour, as the coronavirus pandemic slammed businesses and plunged the country into a record recession. “It is clear that the UK is in the largest recession on record,” the Office for National Statistics said after gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 20.4 percent in April-June. Britain’s recession — its first since 2009 amid […]
Indonesia’s virus-hit economy contracts for first time in two decades
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia’s economy contracted in the second quarter for the first time in more than two decades as it was slammed by coronavirus restrictions, with warnings that the recovery could be among the weakest in Southeast Asia. Output in the region’s biggest economy slumped 5.3 percent on-year in April-June, the statistics agency said. That marked Indonesia’s first contraction since the first quarter of 1999 during the Asian financial crisis nd puts it […]





