MALAYSIA
New stimulus tops US$57bn
The government yesterday announced a stimulus package worth 250 billion ringgit (US$57.54 billion), its second in a month, to help cushion the economic blow from the COVID-19 pandemic. The package largely includes one-off payments and discounts on utilities for people whose livelihoods have been affected by the pandemic, and to help small and medium-sized enterprises stay afloat and retain their staff. The plan includes a 50 billion ringgit loan scheme for larger companies, which would offer guarantees of up to 80 percent of the sum borrowed to shore up working capital in the corporate sector. About 128 billion ringgit would be spent on public welfare measures, with 100 billion used to support businesses. The package is in addition to a 20 billion ringgit stimulus plan announced last month.
EUROPEAN UNION
‘Corona bonds’ opposed
Germany remains opposed to the idea of so-called “corona bonds” that would pool the debt of 19 eurozone countries in response to the coronavirus crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday. Speaking after a video conference with other EU leaders, Merkel rejected the proposal backed by countries including France and Italy. “From the German side and from other sides, we said that this was not the view of all member states,” Merkel said, adding that the existing European Stability Mechanism (ESM) was her “preferred instrument.” She admitted that EU leaders had discussed “whether the ESM contains enough possibilities, and how strong and quick our answer must be.” The existing ESM bailout fund is unpopular in southern European countries such as Italy, as it effectively makes financial aid conditional on economic restructuring.
UNITED STATES
Fed’s balance sheet rising
The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet reached US$5.3 trillion in assets for the first time this week as it scooped up bonds and extended loans to banks, mutual funds and other central banks in its unprecedented effort to backstop the economy in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Fed’s total balance sheet size rose by more than half a trillion dollars in a single week, roughly twice the pace of the next-largest weekly expansion in the financial crisis in October 2008. The Fed bought US$355 billion of Treasuries and mortgage-backed bonds in the last week in what is now an open-ended commitment to stabilize financial markets rocked by the outbreak and the halt in economic activity that has come in its wake.
AIRLINES
Singapore secures funding
Singapore Airlines Ltd said it had secured up to S$19 billion (US$13.24 billion) of funding to help see it through the coronavirus crisis and expand afterward, in a sign of confidence travel demand would eventually return. The airline’s majority shareholder, state-fund Temasek Holdings, said it would underwrite the sale of shares and convertible bonds for up to S$15 billion. Singapore’s biggest bank DBS Group Holdings Ltd provided a S$4 billion loan. “This transaction will not only tide [Singapore Airlines] over a short term financial liquidity challenge, but will position it for growth beyond the pandemic,” Temasek International chief executive Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara said. The airline, a major customer for Airbus SE and Boeing Co, has cut capacity by 96 percent and grounded almost its entire fleet after the Singaporean government banned foreign transit passengers.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary