By Reuters Staff
1 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: World Bank President David Malpass attends the 1+6 Roundtable meeting at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse in Beijing, China November 21, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - World Bank President David Malpass on Monday said he expects China, the United States and other Group of 20 major economies to extend a freeze in bilateral debt service payments through the end of 2021 when they meet this week.
The G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative had already helped countries defer some $5 billion in payments through the end of 2020, with another $7.3 billion in deferred payments expected through June, Malpass told reporters.
Malaysia is confident of attracting more foreign investment this year after a big decline in 2020, and is looking at incentives to help support that goal, its finance minister said on Monday.
By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
PARIS, April 5 (Reuters) - The board of Air France-KLM was meeting on Monday to approve new French government-backed refinancing measures designed to see the airline group through the COVID-19 crisis, sources close to the situation said.
Air France-KLM is expected to convert part of its 4 billion euros ($4.7 billion) in direct government loans into hybrid instruments and raise new equity capital under the plans to be announced by Tuesday morning, the sources told Reuters.
The company and the French finance ministry both declined to comment on Monday.
Air France-KLM, which last year received a total of 10.4 billion euros in loans backed by France and the Netherlands, has for months been discussing a multi-stage recapitalisation plan to lighten the resulting debt load.
By Reuters Staff
3 Min Read
(Reuters) -The U.S. economic outlook is brightening, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester said on Monday, adding that the Federal Reserve should stick to its easy monetary policy to help support growth further.
FILE PHOTO: Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester poses during an interview on the sidelines of the American Economic Association’s annual meeting in San Diego, California, U.S., January 3, 2020. REUTERS/ Ann Saphir
“I’m thinking that we’ll see a very strong second half of the year, but we are still far from our policy goals,” Mester said in an interview on CNBC, referring to the Fed’s goals of full employment and 2% inflation.
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NEW YORK, April 1 (Reuters) - Asian markets were set to open higher on Friday in a holiday-lightened trading session, riding a surge of strong factory data and falling bold yields that pushed U.S. and European benchmark stock indexes to record highs.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion plan to rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure added to the enthusiasm for risk assets, as did accelerating vaccine rollouts.
The China Financial Futures Exchange CIS 300 Index Futures index was up 1.76%, the Nikkei futures index was up 1.23% and E-Mini S&P 500 futures index was up 1.18%. Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore were among the Asian countries observing the Good Friday holiday.