Factbox: Some of the world’s worst stampedes
At least 44 people were crushed to death at an overcrowded religious bonfire festival in Israel on Friday, medics said, in what they called a stampede. read more Here is a list of some of the worst stampedes over the last three decades: April 1989: Ninety-six people were killed and at least 200 injured in Britain’s […]
Vaccination centres close in Mumbai as India posts another record rise in COVID-19
All vaccination centres in India’s financial capital of Mumbai were shut for three days starting Friday due to a shortage of vaccines, said authorities, as the country posted another record daily rise in coronavirus cases. India reported 386,452 news cases on Friday, while deaths from COVID-19 jumped by 3,498 over the last 24 hours, according […]
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.
U.S. economy accelerates in first quarter; jobless claims edge lower
U.S. economic growth accelerated in the first quarter, fueled by massive government aid to households and businesses, charting the course for what is expected will be the strongest performance this year in nearly four decades. Gross domestic product increased at a 6.4% annualized rate last quarter, the Commerce Department said on Thursday in its advance […]
Pitfalls of average inflation targeting when agents have imperfect knowledge
Recent challenges have generated interest in new monetary policy frameworks, including average inflation targeting. The Federal Reserve adopted this policy in 2020, but they have not communicated many details about the policy itself. This column argues that an opaque average inflation targeting policy can de-anchor inflation expectations from the target equilibrium – even if expectations are initially well-anchored. Policymakers should be cautious when implementing average inflation targeting.
Moderna boosting COVID-19 vaccine capacity, targets up to 3 billion shots in 2022
Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) said on Thursday it is boosting manufacturing capacity for its COVID-19 vaccine and expects to make up to 3 billion doses in 2022, more than twice its previous forecast. It also said it is increasing its expectations for 2021 vaccine production to between 800 million and 1 billion shots, raising the bottom of its range from […]
London Heathrow Airport’s COVID losses balloon to $3.4 bln
Heathrow, Britain’s biggest airport, said on Thursday a first quarter loss of 329 million pounds ($459 million) took total losses since the start of the pandemic to nearly 2.4 billion pounds as travel continues to be hammered. It said only 1.7 million passengers travelled through the London airport in the three months to March 31, […]
Biden pleads for unity, warns of Chinese threat, in speech to Congress
President Joe Biden proposed a sweeping new $1.8 trillion plan in a speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, pleading with Republican lawmakers to work with him on divisive issues and to meet the stiff competition posed by China.
From Amazon to Tata, industry steps up to combat India’s coronavirus crisis
Sachin Ravikumar, Nivedita Bhattacharjee, Chris Thomas Global and Indian firms are flexing their industrial muscle to help the world’s second biggest population battle coronavirus, coming to the rescue of a public health system buckling under the weight of surging infections and deaths. Amazon.com (AMZN.O), Intel (INTC.O) and Google, as well as Indian firms Tata Sons, Reliance Industries (RELI.NS) and JSW […]
India’s coronavirus death toll surpasses 200,000 after record case surge
India’s COVID-19 death toll surged past 200,000 on Wednesday as shortages of oxygen, medical supplies and hospital staff compounded a record number of new cases of the virus.
