Business News Daily Updates

Coronavirus may bring Asia's 2020 growth to halt for 1st time in 60 years: IMF

Asia's economy is likely to suffer zero growth this year for the first time in 60 years, the IMF said. The projection is worse than the 4.7% growth rate throughout the Global Financial Crisis, and the 1.3% increase during the Asian Financial Crisis. "That said, Asia still looks to fare better than other regions in terms of activity," IMF added.
read more at Reuters

Strongly support India's policy response to COVID-19 pandemic: IMF

The IMF has said it "strongly supports" India's policy response to coronavirus pandemic, including the fiscal stimulus package and "proactive decision" to pursue a lockdown despite economic slowdown. IMF also supports the RBI's policy responses to support financial stability, Asia-Pacific Director Chang Yong Rhee added. On March 26, the Finance Ministry unveiled a 1.7 lakh crore economic package.
read more at India.com

We will significantly slow pace of hiring in 2020: Google CEO Pichai emails staff

Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has emailed employees that the company is reevaluating its pace of investment plans for the remainder of 2020 amid coronavirus pandemic and will "significantly" slow pace of hiring. "It's already been the most unusual year in memory," said Pichai. "Google and Alphabet are not immune to the effects of this global pandemic," he added.
read more at BloombergQuint

Jeff Bezos plans regular COVID-19 testing of all Amazon employees

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in a letter to shareholders said he's planning regular testing of all employees for coronavirus, including those showing no symptoms. "Regular testing on global scale, across all industries, would both help keep people safe and help get the economy back up and running," wrote Bezos. "We've begun the work of building incremental testing capacity," he added.
read more at TechCrunch

India's GDP projections by World Bank, IMF 'too optimistic': Arvind Subramanian

Former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian on Wednesday said the GDP growth forecasts by the World Bank and IMF for India are "way too optimistic". World Bank expects India to grow 1.5-2.8% in 2020-21 while IMF projected a 1.9% growth. "Even if we lose one month's output, we are talking about pretty negative rate of growth," Subramanian added.
read more at Deccan Herald

India's economy may shrink for first time in 40 years, says Nomura

India's economy may see its first full-year contraction in more than 40 years in 2020-21 after PM Narendra Modi extended nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus outbreak, Nomura economist Sonal Varma said. The lockdown extension will result in a direct output loss of over 8%, she added. The economy had last contracted in 1979-80, when GDP shrank 5.2%.
read more at Deccan Herald

Limited trading hours for debt, currency markets to continue till Apr 30: RBI

The Reserve Bank of India has said that the limited trading hours for the debt and currency markets will continue to be effective till April 30 amid the extension of the coronavirus lockdown. Trading will be open only from 10 am-2 pm. Earlier, the RBI amended the trading hours from April 7-17 to minimise the risks due to the outbreak.

Hyundai provides COVID-19 testing kits that can diagnose 25,000 people to ICMR

Hyundai Motor India has announced that it has provided coronavirus testing kits to ICMR to help fight against the pandemic in India. The testing kits have been exported from South Korea for ₹4 crore and "give accurate results and can meet the testing requirements of 25,000 individuals". India has over 12,000 coronavirus positive cases and over 400 deaths till now.
read more at Hindustan Times

Merchandise exports drop by a record 34.6% in March, imports down 28.7%

The coronavirus pandemic in India has hit merchandise exports as it dropped by a record 34.6% in March while imports declined 28.7%. Out of the total 30 items that India exports and imports, 29 of them saw a contraction in March as many countries shut their borders. However, iron ore exports and imports of transport equipment saw growth in March.
read more at Hindustan Times

Economic growth may fall to 1.1% this fiscal due to coronavirus: SBI report

An SBI report said that India's economic growth is likely to fall to 1.1% in the current financial year due to coronavirus pandemic which has affect business worldwide. Moreover, economic growth rate in 2019-20 is expected to stand at 4.1% from 5% predicted by analysts earlier, it added. It estimates overall loss for FY21 to be around ₹12.1 lakh crore.
read more at The New Indian Express

FM Sitharaman attends plenary meeting of IMF via video conference

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman attended the plenary meeting of International Monetary and Financial Committee of the IMF through video conference on Thursday. Sitharaman shared measures taken by India to combat coronavirus, including social support measures for poor and relief measures for firms in statutory and regulatory compliance matters, the Ministry of Finance said in a tweet.
read more at Twitter

COVID-19 won't impact telecom sector but AGR dues create uncertainty: ICRA

Rating agency ICRA has noted that the coronavirus pandemic won't affect the telecom industry but the ₹90,000 crore AGR dues that telcos have to pay creates uncertainty in the sector. AGR dues are expected to increase debt to ₹4.6 lakh crore in FY2021. ICRA expects the industry's revenue and operating profit to grow by 18% and 21%, respectively, in FY2021.

Self-driving car startup Zoox to settle trade secret theft lawsuit with Tesla

Autonomous car startup Zoox has agreed to settle a trade secret theft lawsuit with Tesla. The lawsuit, filed by Tesla against four former employees and Zoox, alleged the employees stole its confidential proprietary information, among other trade secrets. Zoox agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to Tesla and undergo an audit to ensure no employee had retained Tesla's confidential information.
read more at Reuters