JAKARTA: Indonesia expects its unemployment rate to spike to 8.1 per cent to 9.2 per cent this year due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, from 5.28 per cent in 2019, according to presentations by Cabinet ministers in a parliamentary hearing on Monday (Jun 22). Planning Minister Suharso […]
Business
SINGAPORE: Employment agencies in Singapore will have to meet new licence conditions to strengthen fair hiring practices, announced the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Monday (Jun 22). The nearly 3,900 employment agencies licensed by MOM must not in any way abet discriminatory hiring by their clients, such as by withholding […]
SINGAPORE: Singaporeans have to “calibrate” and “carry on with economic activity” even though the risks are higher in Phase 2 of Singapore’s reopening, said Minister for Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam. He was speaking to host Diana Ser in the first of three special episodes of In Conversation. “The […]
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump held off on imposing tougher sanctions on Chinese officials blamed for a crackdown on China’s Uighur Muslim minority because of concern such measures would have interfered with trade negotiations with Beijing, he said in an interview published on Sunday (Jun 21). “Well, we were in the […]
SYDNEY: The recent appreciation in the Australian dollar is not a problem at this point although a lower exchange rate would help the economy, the country’s top central banker said on Monday. The Aussie has surged 24 per cent to the US dollar since hitting a low of US$0.5510 in […]
MEXICO CITY: Mexico will resume sending temporary farmworkers to Canada after the two countries reached an agreement on improved safety protections for laborers on Canadian farms during the coronavirus pandemic, the Mexican government said on Sunday (Jun 21). Mexico said last Tuesday it would pause sending workers to farms with […]
FILE PHOTO: An attendant walks past EU and China flags ahead of the EU-China High-level Economic Dialogue at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China June 25, 2018. BRUSSELS: The European Union and China will seek to cool tensions on Monday (Jun 22) at a video summit, their first formal […]
BEIJING: China banned imports from a top US poultry producer and ordered a Beijing Pepsi factory to close on Sunday (Jun 21) as authorites clamped down on food production and distribution amid a new coronavirus cluster in the capital. Health officials also reported 22 new virus cases in Beijing, where […]
NEW YORK: American Airlines Group Inc is planning to raise around US$1.5 billion by selling shares and convertible notes, as the airline shores up liquidity after travel disruption due to coronavirus, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday (Jun 21). The airline could announce the offering as early as Sunday, the report […]
LONDON: British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is ready to cut the value-added tax (VAT) as part of the government’s latest efforts to tackle economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, the Sunday Times newspaper reported. Sunak has ordered officials to prepare options for reducing the sales tax, including a […]