The United Nations has warned of an impending food shortage due to the coronavirus pandemic as major exporters such as Argentina find it increasingly difficult to sell their produce.
Global trade growth is expected to plummet by up to a third in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the World Trade Organization said on Wednesday, warning that the numbers would be ugly.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's condition was said to be improving on Wednesday, as he spent a third day in intensive care battling COVID-19. The disease has struck at the heart of the British government, infected more than 60,000 people across nationwide and killed more than 7,000.
After weeks of disagreement - especially between the United States and China - the UN Security Council will meet on Thursday to discuss the coronavirus pandemic for the first time.
Services activity in Brazil shrank 1% in February, official figures showed on Wednesday, the biggest monthly fall in over 18 months and another sign Latin America's largest economy was already in go-slow mode before the coronavirus crisis erupted.
Rockhopper Exploration is responding to market developments by reducing staffing levels and activity related to the Sea Lion development in the offshore North Falkland basin. The company plans to maintain a smaller team, mainly focused on regulatory, fiscal and financial issues, pending a recovery in the external macro-environment.
Authorities in Germany have fallen victim to a multi-million-euro fraud involving masks much needed in the coronavirus pandemic, prosecutors said on Tuesday. North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state and one of the hardest hit, paid 14.7 million euros for some 10 million masks in March only to discover they did not exist, according to prosecutors in Traunstein, Bavaria.
China last year became the world leader in international patent filings, unseating the United States which had held the top spot for more than four decades, the UN said on Tuesday. A record 265,800 international patent applications were filed last year, a hike of 5.2% from 2018, the World Intellectual Property Organization said in its annual report.
Market reports suggest that Argentine beef shipments to the European Union have reduced to almost zero amid the global coronavirus pandemic. Sales to China, the main buyer, have dropped below 2019 levels.
Hopes that the economy-crushing coronavirus pandemic might be easing sent Wall Street climbing sharply on Monday with all three main indices higher at the close of trading.