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Yuan Eases Over Fear Of Second Wave Virus Infection Sino-US...

2020-07-05T20:29:18Z

DaisyBolt0606: Created page with " SHANGHAI, June 17 (Reuters) - The yuan eased against a rising dollar on Wednesday, dragged lower by worries over a possible second wave of coronavirus infection in mainlan..."

SHANGHAI, June 17 (Reuters) - The yuan eased against a rising dollar on Wednesday, dragged lower by worries over a possible second wave of coronavirus infection in mainland China as Beijing raised its emergency response level overnight following an increase in new cases. Health officials recorded 31 new confirmed infections in Beijing for June 16, [https://travelfinderus.shutterfly.com/32 https://travelfinderus.shutterfly.com/32] bringing the cumulative infections since Thursday to 137 cases, the worst resurgence of the disease in the city since early February. Prior to market opening, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) set the midpoint rate at 7.0873 per dollar, 118 pips or 0.17% weaker than the previous fix of 7.0755. In the spot market, the onshore yuan opened at 7.0870 per dollar and was changing hands at 7.0928 at midday, 73 pips weaker than the previous late session close. Traders said apart from the virus fears, concerns over China's tensions with both the United States and India, also weighed on market sentiment with some corporate clients front loading their dollar purchases for seasonal dividend payments. Investors were cautious ahead of talks later this week between senior Chinese and U.S. officials aimed at finding ways to resolve various issues. Tensions on the disputed border with India boiled over earlier this week, with the Indian Army saying on Tuesday that 20 of its soldiers had been killed in clashes with Chinese troops, in a major escalation of a weeks-long standoff between the two Asian giants in the western Himalayas. China has not reported any casualties but its military demanded that India immediately stop all infringements and provocative actions. Bo Zhuang, Chief China Economist at TS Lombard said the latest virus outbreak in Beijing was unlikely to reverse China's economic recovery, and the biggest downside risk remained the Sino-U.S. tensions. "A deeper recession caused by a second wave of the global pandemic or the escalation of U.S.-China economic tensions before the American presidential election in November pose the biggest downside risks to growth for the remainder of this year," he said in a note. In global markets, the dollar rose against many of its rivals after U.S. retail sales jumped far more than expected in May. The global dollar index rose to 97.033 at midday, when the offshore yuan was trading at 7.0859 per dollar. The yuan market at 0401 GMT: ONSHORE SPOT: Item Current Previous Change PBOC midpoint 7.0873 7.0755 -0.17% Spot yuan 7.0928 7.0855 -0.10% Divergence from 0.08% midpoint* Spot change YTD -1.83% Spot change since 2005 16.69% revaluation Key indexes: Item Current Previous Change Thomson 91.81 91.71 0.1 Reuters/HKEX CNH index Dollar index 97.033 96.99 0.0 *Divergence of the dollar/yuan exchange rate. Negative number indicates that spot yuan is trading stronger than the midpoint. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) allows the exchange rate to rise or fall 2% from official midpoint rate it sets each morning. OFFSHORE CNH MARKET Instrument Current Difference from onshore Offshore spot yuan 7.0859 0.10% * Offshore 7.214 -1.76% non-deliverable forwards ** *Premium for offshore spot over onshore **Figure reflects difference from PBOC's official midpoint, since non-deliverable forwards are settled against the midpoint. . (Reporting by Winni Zhou and Andrew Galbraith; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

India Domestic Flights To Resume But Coronavirus Cases Rise

2020-07-05T19:45:06Z

DaisyBolt0606: Created page with " By Rajendra Jadhav and Aditi Shah MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, May 24 (Reuters) - Domestic flights will resume across India on Monday after a day of "hard negotiations", the..."

By Rajendra Jadhav and Aditi Shah MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, May 24 (Reuters) - Domestic flights will resume across India on Monday after a day of "hard negotiations", the federal civil aviation minister said on Sunday, after some states sought to limit the number of flights. Flights will restart under an easing of restrictions imposed over the coronavirus, though the number of new cases rose by a record 24-hour amount on Sunday. The 6,767 new cases took the total to over 131,000. Airlines are preparing to resume about a third of their domestic flight operations from Monday, even without clarity over what quarantine rules may apply to passengers. The western state of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu in the south and West Bengal in the east -- business hubs and [https://penzu.com/p/64403451 https://penzu.com/p/64403451] home to India's busiest airports -- had said they were not prepared to open for flights as coronavirus cases rose, state government officials said. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu agreed to operate limited flights from Monday, while southern state of Andhra Pradesh would allow flights from Tuesday, India's civil aviation minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, said on Twitter late on Sunday. "It has been a long day of hard negotiations with various state government to recommence civil aviation operations in the country.....Domestic flights will recommence across the country from tomorrow," he said. West Bengal urged the central government to postpone the resumption of passenger flights to Kolkata as it focuses on rescue work after Cyclone Amphan hit the city. Limited aviation operations in West Bengal will commence from Thursday, Puri said. India's federal structure gives its 28 states flexibility to set their own rules, complicating government efforts to kickstart the economy. The federal health ministry on Sunday asked states to design quarantine plans based on symptoms of passengers where those with moderate or severe symptoms would be taken to dedicated facilities. Those with mild symptoms must stay at home. Airlines including IndiGo, India's biggest carrier, SpiceJet Ltd and Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Group and Singapore Airlines are preparing to restart some operations from Monday. Budget carrier GoAir said it would resume flight operations from June 1 as it awaits clarity on the readiness of states and airports. (Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai and Aditi Shah in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Subrata Nagchoudhury in Kolkata and Sudarshan Varadhan in Chennai; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Timothy Heritage)

More Patients Than Beds In Mumbai As India Faces Surge In Virus Cases

2020-07-05T19:12:30Z

DaisyBolt0606: Created page with " By Abhirup Roy, Devjyot Ghoshal and Aditya Kalra MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, May 25 (Reuters) - When Manit Parikh's mother tested positive for the new coronavirus, she was r..."

By Abhirup Roy, Devjyot Ghoshal and Aditya Kalra MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, May 25 (Reuters) - When Manit Parikh's mother tested positive for the new coronavirus, she was rushed by ambulance to Mumbai's private Lilavati Hospital, but officials told the family no critical-care beds were available. Five hours and dozens of phone calls later the family found a bed for her at the private Bombay Hospital. A day later, on May 18, Parikh's 92-year-old diabetic grandfather had breathing difficulties at home and was taken to the city's Breach Candy Hospital, another top private facility, but there were no beds. "My dad was pleading with them," Parikh told Reuters. "They said they didn't have a bed, not even a normal bed." Later that day, they found a bed at Bombay Hospital but his grandfather died hours later. His test results showed he was infected with the virus. Parikh said he believes the delays contributed to his grandfather's death. Officials at Lilavati and Bombay Hospital declined to speak with Reuters. Representatives of Breach Candy hospital did not respond to requests for comment. For years, India's booming private hospitals have taken some of the strain off the country's underfunded and dilapidated public health network, but the ordeal of Parikh's family suggests that as coronavirus cases explode in India, even private facilities are at risk of being overrun. India on Sunday reported 6,767 new coronavirus infections, the country´s biggest one-day increase. Government data shows the number of coronavirus cases in the world´s second-most populous country are doubling every 13 days or so, even as the government begins easing lockdown restrictions. India has reported more than 131,000 infections, including 3,867 deaths. "The increasing trend has not gone down," said Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Michigan, referring to India´s cases. "We've not seen a flattening of the curve." Mukherjee's team estimates that between 630,000 and 2.1 million people in India - out of a population of 1.3 billion - will become infected by early July. More than a fifth of the country´s coronavirus cases are in Mumbai, India's financial hub and its most populous city, where the Parikhs struggled to find hospital beds for their infected family members. India's health ministry did not respond to a request for comment on how it will cope with the predicted rise in infections, given that most public hospitals are overcrowded at the best of times. The federal government has said in media briefings that not all patients need hospitalization and it is making rapid efforts to increase the number of hospital beds and procure health gear. The federal government's data from last year showed there were about 714,000 hospital beds in India, up from about 540,000 in 2009. However, given India's rising population, the number of beds per 1,000 people has grown only slightly in that time. India has 0.5 beds per 1,000 people, according to the latest data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), up from 0.4 beds in 2009, but among lowest of countries surveyed by the OECD. In contrast, China has 4.3 hospital beds per 1,000 people and the United States has 2.8, according to the latest OECD figures. While millions of India's poor rely on the public health system, especially in rural areas, private facilities account for 55% of hospital admissions, according to government data. The private health sector has been growing over the past two decades, especially in India´s big cities, where an expanding class of affluent Indians can afford private care. Mumbai's municipal authority said it had ordered public officials to take control of at least 100 private hospital beds in all 24 zones in the city of almost 20 million people to make more beds available for coronavirus patients. Still, there is a waiting list. An official at a helpline run by Mumbai's civic authorities told Reuters that patients would be notified about availability. SHORTAGE OF STAFF It is not just beds that are in short supply. On May 16, Mumbai's municipal authority said that it did not have enough staff to operate beds required for patients critically ill with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. As a result, resident doctors will receive less time off than what is prescribed by the federal government, the authority said. Some medical professionals told Reuters they already are overburdened and treating patients without adequate protective gear, exposing them to a higher risk of infection. Several hospitals in Mumbai, western Gujarat state, the northern city of Agra and Kolkata in the east have in recent weeks shut partially or fully for days because some medical staff were infected with the virus. The federal government has not reported any deaths of medical staff from the virus. "In our country, healthcare has never gotten priority," said Dr Adarsh Pratap Singh, head of the 2,500-strong resident doctors association at New Delhi's top public hospital, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. "The government is now realizing the reality, but it's already too late." The AIIMS group has in recent weeks protested about the lack of health gear and publicly rejected Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for doctors to donate a part of their salaries to his coronavirus fund. Some health experts say India's struggle to treat virus patients is the result of chronic underinvestment in healthcare. The Indian government estimates it spends only about 1.5% of its GDP on public health. That figure is higher than it was - about 1% in the 1980s and 1.3% five years ago - but India still ranks among the world's lowest spenders in terms of percentage of GDP. This year, Modi's federal government raised its health budget by 6%, but that is still short of the government's own goal of increasing public health spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2025, according to New Delhi-based think tank Observer Research Foundation. 'TOO MANY PATIENTS' Keshav Desiraju, a former Indian health secretary, said more investment in the health system before the virus outbreak might have made the health system more resilient. "At the times of a crisis, all the holes show up," he told Reuters. Dr. Chaitanya Patil, a senior resident doctor at King Edward Memorial government hospital, one of Mumbai's largest, said the facility had a shortage of medical staff and the 12 coronavirus wards catering to about 500 patients were almost full. "There are just too many patients coming in," said Patil, "It is lack of preparedness or a lack of insight of the people planning." Last week Rajesh Tope, health minister of the state of Maharashtra, which contains Mumbai, said the lack of hospital beds for critically ill patients will not last long. "In the next two months, more than 17,000 vacant posts of doctors, nurses, technicians and other health workers will be filled," he said in a public address. India's United Nurses Association, [https://travelfinderus.shutterfly.com/32 https://travelfinderus.shutterfly.com/32] which represents 380,000 medics, took a list of 12 issues they said they are facing - including lack of protective gear and accommodation - to the Supreme Court in April. The court told them they can lodge complaints on a government helpline. Some nurses are leaving the big cities. Earlier this month, about 300 nurses working at hospitals in Kolkata city left for their hometowns 1,500 km (930 miles) away in India's remote northeastern state of Manipur. A group representing them said they had left because of irregular salaries and inadequate safety gear, among other issues. "We love our profession," said 24-year-old Shyamkumar, who quit his nursing job in one of Kolkata's hospitals and is planning to head back to Manipur. "But when we are going to work, please give us proper equipment." (Reporting by Abhirup Roy in Mumbai and Devjyot Ghoshal and Aditya Kalra in New Delhi Additional reporting by Rajendra Jadhav and Shilpa Jamkhandiker in Mumbai, Sumit Khanna in Gujarat, Subrata Nagchoudhury in Kolkata, Zarir Hussain in Guwahati Editing by Euan Rocha and Bill Rigby)

Asia Rice-Vietnam Rates Scale 8-yr Peak As Rains Hamper Harvest

2020-07-05T16:36:21Z

DaisyBolt0606: Created page with " By Shreyansi Singh BENGALURU, June 4 (Reuters) - Vietnamese rice export prices hit their highest in more than eight years as traders struggled to meet rising deman..."

By Shreyansi Singh BENGALURU, June 4 (Reuters) - Vietnamese rice export prices hit their highest in more than eight years as traders struggled to meet rising demand and heavy rains hampered harvest in the Mekong Delta. Rates for [https://www.diigo.com/item/note/79gls/wp9b?k=121782a7da87ddbb1f16d5016beb2317 www.diigo.com] Vietnam's 5% broken rice <RI-VNBKN5-P1> rose to $475 per tonne on Thursday - the highest since early 2012 - from $450-$460 a week earlier. "Demand remains strong, while supplies are thin," a trader based in Ho Chi Minh City said. "Traders are finding it difficult to secure enough rice to fulfil their contracts signed with buyers in Malaysia and Cuba," the trader said. Other traders, speaking on condition of anonymity, said heavy rains were slowing the summer-autumn harvest in the Mekong Delta. Vietnam aims to ship 7 million tonnes of the grain this year, higher than last year. Heavy rains also hit cultivation in Bangladesh, farmers said, submerging tracts of land. Bangladesh, traditionally the world's fourth biggest rice producer with an annual output of about 35 million tonnes, often resorts to imports to cope with shortages caused by floods or droughts. Top exporter India's 5 percent broken parboiled variety <RI-INBKN5-P1> fell to $368-$373 per tonne from last week's $370-$375. Importers in Africa and Asia have slowed purchases after large buys in May, said Nitin Gupta, vice president of trader Olam India's rice business. India has raised the price at which it will buy new-season common rice varieties from local farmers by 2.9%. Thailand's benchmark 5-percent broken rice <RI-THBKN5-P1> prices rose to $490-$512 on Thursday, from $489-$490 quoted last week. Traders attributed the increase to a stronger baht. "There still are some lingering concerns over supply in the domestic rice market despite the recent spell of rain, and this continues to keep the price high," a Bangkok-based trader said. Rains have eased supply concerns after one of the worst droughts in decades impacted rice growing areas across Thailand earlier this year. (Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai, Ruma Paul in Dhaka, Khanh Vu in Hanoi and Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok; editing by Arpan Varghese and Barbara Lewis)

User:DaisyBolt0606

2020-07-05T16:36:17Z

DaisyBolt0606: Created page with "By John Sibley and [https://www.diigo.com/item/note/79gls/wp9b?k=121782a7da87ddbb1f16d5016beb2317 www.diigo.com] Estelle Shirbon LONDON, June 9 (Reuters) - A statue of..."

By John Sibley and [https://www.diigo.com/item/note/79gls/wp9b?k=121782a7da87ddbb1f16d5016beb2317 www.diigo.com] Estelle Shirbon LONDON, June 9 (Reuters) - A statue of Robert Milligan, an 18th century slave trader, was removed from its plinth outside a London museum on Tuesday after global anti-racism protests triggered a debate. Feel free to surf to my homepage [https://www.diigo.com/item/note/79gls/wp9b?k=121782a7da87ddbb1f16d5016beb2317 www.diigo.com]