Wed, Jun 10, 2020 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  GERMANY

  April exports decline 24%

  Exports in April tumbled 24 percent month-on-month to 75.7 billion euros (US$85.3 billion), official data showed yesterday, as Europe’s top economy felt the full effects of COVID-19 lockdowns worldwide. Compared with a year earlier, exports slumped 31.1 percent in April — “the biggest fall in a single month since foreign trade statistics began in 1950,” statistics authority Destatis said in a statement. Trade surplus tumbled to just 3.2 billion euros in seasonally adjusted terms, the lowest since December 2000. That was because imports in April fell more slowly than exports, down 16.5 percent month-on-month to 72.2 billion euros.

  AUTOMAKERS

  New VW brand head picked

  Volkswagen AG CEO Herbert Diess is giving up the management of the firm’s core VW brand so that he can concentrate more on the group as a whole, the German automaker said on Monday. Diess, whose image had been tarnished in the fallout from the company’s diesel-emissions scandal, is to be replaced as head of the VW brand by Ralf Brandstaetter, who has been serving as the brand’s chief operating officer, the company said. The change would give Diess — who has been pushing the company ahead with a shift toward zero-emission vehicles and a new, more environmentally friendly image — more time to focus on the overall brand, the firm said.

  INDIA

  Lockdown cuts gold imports

  Gold imports last month slumped by about 99 percent for a second straight month, disrupted by restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19 in the world’s second-biggest consuming nation. Inbound shipments fell to 1.3 tonnes from 105.8 tonnes a year earlier, a person familiar with the data said on condition of anonymity. That comes after shipments in April plunged to 60kg, the lowest monthly imports in at least a decade. Ministry of Finance spokesman Rajesh Malhotra did not immediately respond to two calls to his cellphone during office hours.

  SINGAPORE

  Virus tech plans rise 30%

  The city-state plans to spend S$3.5 billion (US$2.5 billion) on information and communications technology in the current fiscal year as it prepares to develop and deploy new tools such as sensors and contact tracing devices to combat COVID-19. The estimated expenditure is 30 percent more than what the government had projected last year, the Government Technology Agency said in a statement. Small and medium companies would be eligible to participate in 80 percent of the estimated procurement opportunities, it said. “COVID-19 has illustrated the importance of digitalization, and the need to accelerate it within and beyond the public sector,” agency CEO Kok Ping Soon (郭柄汛) said.

  AFRICA

  Coronavirus hits agriculture

  The pandemic could cost the continent as much as US$4.8 billion in lost agricultural exports and affect the livelihoods of 10 million farmers, McKinsey & Co said. Disruptions ranging from canceled flights to the closure of chocolate factories in Europe have limited exports of crops ranging from nuts to roses, the consultancy firm said. Livelihoods would be affected through “job loss or price reductions,” McKinsey said. Agriculture is critical for the continent’s economies, accounting for 23 percent of GDP and jobs for 60 percent of economically active people in the sub-Saharan region. The continent exports US$35 billion to US$40 billion in agricultural products annually.
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