Turkey is re-introducing weekend lockdowns in most of its provinces and will also impose restrictions over the Muslim holy month of Ramadan following a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases, the Associated Press reported. Infections in Turkey have soared less than a month after authorities divided the 81 provinces into four color-coded categories and relaxed restrictions in some provinces under a “controlled normalization” effort. The number of infections hit a record on Tuesday, with the Health Ministry confirming 37,303 new cases in the past 24 hours.
Resources Per Country
- Afghanistan
- Armenia
- Australia
- Azerbaijan
- Bangladesh
- Bhutan
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- China
- Cook Islands
- Cyprus
- Fiji
- Georgia
- Hong Kong
- India
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Macau
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Micronesia
- Mongolia
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- New Zealand
- North Korea
- Pakistan
- Papua New Guinea
- Philippines
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- Thailand
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Vietnam
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AirAsia Group Bhd. posted a record loss in the fourth quarter and said revenue plunged 92% from a year earlier as coronavirus restrictions affected travel demand internationally and in Malaysia, Bloomberg News reported. The airline, a low-cost pioneer in Asia, posted a net loss of 2.4 billion ringgit ($590 million) for the three months through December, taking its loss for the year to 5.1 billion ringgit. “While international borders remained closed, the group focused on resuming limited domestic operations in the areas we operate,” the company said in a statement Monday.
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Nomura and Credit Suisse warned on Monday they were facing big losses after a U.S. hedge fund, named by sources as Archegos Capital, defaulted on margin calls, putting investors on edge about who else had been caught out, Reuters reported. Losses at Archegos Capital Management, run by former Tiger Asia manager Bill Hwang, had triggered a fire sale of stocks on Friday. Nomura said it faced a possible $2 billion loss due to transactions with a U.S.
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Chinese lending to African governments dropped by nearly a third in 2019 -- and probably continued to fall last year -- as a rising threat of defaults stemmed a deluge of credit from the country in the past decade, Bloomberg News reported. A study by Johns Hopkins University’s China-Africa Research Initiative showed that Chinese financing to Africa fell below $9 billion for the first time in nearly a decade in 2019, with Beijing refraining or reducing the size of loans to major borrowers such as Angola and Ethiopia.
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India allowed the resumption of bankruptcy filings, ending a year-old suspension created to protect firms from the impact of the virus pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The law is in operation after an executive order halting bankruptcy proceedings expired on March 25, said the people, asking not to be identified as the matter is not public. The move follows a court ruling earlier this week that mandated banks to resume classifying bad debt, unwinding another pandemic-era measure.
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Authorities in India believe that a new breed of lender, its technique sharpened in China, has been preying on working-class and rural people who have been devastated by the impact of the coronavirus on the Indian economy, the New York Times reported. These lenders don’t require credit scores or visits to a bank. But they charge high costs over a brief period. They also require access to a borrower’s phone, siphoning up contacts, photos, text messages, even battery percentage.
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The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that a bank can initiate proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) against a corporate guarantor if the principal borrower defaults on repayment of loans and the debt is declared nonperforming asset (NPA), the Times of India reported.
Ireland’s High Court cleared the way on Friday for Norwegian Air to raise new capital and emerge from bankruptcy protection in Ireland and Norway in May by approving the airline’s restructuring scheme, Reuters reported. Norwegian’s survival plan, announced last year, puts a definitive end to its long-haul business, leaving a slimmed-down airline focusing on Nordic and European routes. “We can now go forward with the reconstruction in Norway and initiate a capital raise.” Chief Executive Jacob Schram said in a statement following the ruling.
Widely watched airfares in China are recovering to pre-pandemic levels as domestic tourists lead a patchy air travel recovery, scattering crumbs of hope to a shattered global travel sector, Reuters reported. With international markets like Europe still in partial lockdown, the global tourism industry’s attention is riveted on China’s new travel patterns as it brings COVID-19 under control and lifts curbs on movement. The Chinese domestic market quietly overtook the once-dominant U.S.
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New Zealand’s biggest bond rally in a year set the tone for moves across other debt markets Wednesday following declines in U.S. Treasury yields, Bloomberg News reported. Kiwi yields posted their biggest drop since the coronavirus wreaked havoc in March last year as traders curbed wagers for interest-rate hikes in the wake of government measures to cool housing prices. Bonds in Australia and emerging Asian economies also advanced while German bund futures signaled a firmer start.
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