The surge in online shopping caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to add £5.3bn to UK ecommerce sales this year to make a total of £78.9bn. This is according to analysts at Edge Retail Insight, the global trend forecasting arm of retail insights firm Edge by Ascential, who have updated all pre-existing forecasts to account for the significant long-term impact of COVID-19 on consumer shopping behaviours and preferences. Read more
Over Q1 2020, COVID-19 has developed from an emerging threat to a transformational reality with potentially long-lasting effects on economic growth. All optimism for commodity markets at the start of the year was quickly extinguished as the coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China. Prices have been dragged down further by dire market fundamentals which were a result of government-imposed lockdowns in the major global economies. Both supply and demand have been lowered across the board, but demand has been harder hit and will be slower to make a recovery. Most commodities have further to fall from here. There has been a profound human cost to the pandemic and the economic fallout of governments’ responses is just starting to be counted. Read more
Finastra research reveals that 86% of global banks are looking to use open APIs to enable Open Banking capabilities in the next 12 months. In addition, 30% of banks surveyed believe Open Banking is already making a tangible impact in delivering improved overall customer experience. This is against a backdrop where regulation is perceived to be tighter than a year ago and close to half (48%) of those audited believe that regulators are holding back innovation. Read more
China will set out its major economic objectives and policy goals for 2020 at the National People’s Congress. We expect fiscal stimulus of 5-8% of nominal GDP to be announced, half the size of the stimulus that followed the GFC. Most of this stimulus will come in the form of bond issuance (e.g. special treasury bonds and local government special bonds). The biggest beneficiary of this stimulus will be the transport and infrastructure sectors. On monetary policy, we do not expect aggressive interest rate cuts or QE; but efforts will continue to ensure financial markets remain liquid, through lending targets and RRR cuts. Read more
Approximately 252 million women around the world are entrepreneurs and another 153 million women are operating established businesses, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2018/2019 Report on Women’s Entrepreneurship, released today by Babson College and Smith College and sponsored by the Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation. This 2018/2019 report provides analysis from 59 economies, aggregating data from two GEM data collection cycles, 10 economies reporting in 2017 and 49 reporting in 2018. Read More
The U.S. Secret Service this week issued an alert to banks warning banks about an ATM exploit known called “jackpotting.” Continue reading
Information about location and staffing of U.S. military bases around the world has been revealed by a fitness tracking company. Continue reading
TOKYO, JAPAN (JANUARY 29, 2018) (REUTERS) – Japan’s financial regulator plans to slap an administrative punishment on cyrptocurrency exchange operator Coincheck Inc on Monday (January 29), the top government spokesman said, after the firm lost 58 billion yen ($534 million) worth of NEM coins to hackers. Continue reading
China Central Television (CCTV) – A major Japanese crypto-currency exchange has lost 58 billion yen (about 528 million U.S. dollars) in digital assets after a hacking attack, making it the world’s biggest ever digital currency theft. Continue reading
70 percent discount on Nutella sparks chaos in French supermarkets as customers swarm around stand and staff try to restore order Continue reading