Online share of retail sales jumps to 19% amid lockdowns – UN
Online sales accounted for nearly a fifth of total retail turnover last year as lockdowns to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic fuelled a boom in e-commerce, a United Nations study released on Monday showed. Online sales accounted for 19% of overall retail sales in 2020, up from 16% a year earlier, according to […]
India’s COVID-19 daily cases hold close to record, another state imposes lockdown
India’s new coronavirus cases dipped marginally on Sunday but deaths due to the infection jumped by a record 3,689, with one more state going into lockdown as the nation’s creaky healthcare system is unable to cope with a massive caseload. Authorities reported 392,488 new cases in the previous 24 hours to push total cases to […]
German output shrinks in Q1 as lockdown dampens consumption
The German economy contracted by a greater than expected 1.7% in the first quarter as a lockdown in place since November to contain the coronavirus stifled private consumption in Europe’s largest economy, data showed on Friday. “The coronavirus crisis caused another decline in economic performance at the beginning of 2021,” the Federal Statistics Office said. […]
Lockdown accounting
Many countries have implemented social distancing and lockdown policies to tame the spread of Covid-19. This column discusses the potential GDP and employment effects of lockdown policies for a broad cross-section of countries ranging in income per capita from Niger to Luxembourg. It shows that the employment and GDP effects of lockdown policies are U-shaped in income per capita. While workers in rich countries have a substantially higher ability to work from home, which mitigates declines in employment and GDP, poor countries concentrate employment and value-added in essential sectors that are not shut down. Middle-income countries see the largest declines as they feature relatively large employment shares in non-essential sectors and relatively low work from home ability.
Buying diamonds in lockdown? WhatsApp can be your best friend
MILAN (Reuters) – As Italy entered a new coronavirus lockdown and shut shops in March, Genoa-based jeweller Gismondi 1754 turned to messaging service WhatsApp to sell a 300,000 euro diamond ring to a wealthy Swiss client.
Surge in greenhouse gases sustained despite COVID lockdowns – U.N.
GENEVA (Reuters) – Greenhouse gas concentrations climbed to a new record in 2019 and rose again this year despite an expected drop in emissions due to COVID-19 lockdowns, the World Meteorological Organization said on Monday, warning against complacency.
