By June, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva will make a formal proposal to the fund's executive board to create $650 billion in reserve assets to help the world recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Ms. Georgieva called the preliminary discussion "very encouraging." "I intend to submit a formal proposal for a new allocation of $650 billion to the board of...

Bitcoin could reach $300,000 as early as 2021, according to Bobby Lee, founder of cryptocurrency exchange BTCC. However, after a sharp rise, the cryptocurrency will decline for several years, causing its value to drop by 80-90%, he added. The value of bitcoin could rise to $300,000, after which it would go down, BTCC co-founder and former cryptocurrency exchange CEO Bobby Lee forecasted in an...

Container shipping spot rates, which have soared several times in the past six months, have begun to fall as supply is increasing. Container spot rates, which have soared several times in recent months, have started a slow decline. The World Container Index, calculated by Drewry, fell 1.7% to $4,94,000 per 40-foot container (FEU) in the week ended March 19.  The price has been slowly...

Morgan Stanley will only allow its richest clients to invest in bitcoin funds. They will be able to invest no more than 2.5 per cent of their capital in cryptocurrency assets, and the first investments could be made as early as April. Investment bank Morgan Stanley will be the first major US bank to offer its wealthy clients investments in bitcoin funds. It will open door to the three funds to...

The global shortage of semiconductors resulted production cuts in North America in two Japanese car companies, according to The Wall Street Journal. Honda announced that it would suspend production at almost all of its plants in the U.S. and Canada starting March 22. It is assumed that work at five plants will be suspended for one week, but the company's managers do not rule out that the downtime...

UK's biggest car makers have called on the UK government to delay a ban on petrol and diesel-powered cars because of the risk of falling sales and job losses, the Guardian reports. The UK government plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and lorries by 2030, 10 years earlier than originally planned. Hybrid cars will be allowed to be sold until 2035. According to the Guardian,...

The volume of foreign direct investment (FDI) actually used in the Chinese mainland economy rose 31.5 per cent year-on-year to 176.76 billion yuan in the first two months of the year, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said. In dollar terms, inflows rose 34.2 percent year on year to $26.07 billion. Foreign investment in services amounted to 141.74 billion yuan in the period, up 48.7 percent from a...

The majority of global CEOs believe that global GDP will improve this year and that business revenues will grow. This is evidenced by data from a PwC survey of 5,000 CEOs from 100 countries. GDP growth is expected by 76% of respondents, the highest since the question was included in the survey in 2012. At the end of 2019 there were only 22% of such optimists, while 53% were expecting a slowdown...

Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil and gas company Saudi Aramco has raised April selling prices for all grades of oil for US and Asian customers, while prices have been cut for European customers, Bloomberg reported. "Saudi Aramco raised prices for Arab Light crude for Asia ... by 40 cents a barrel, to $1.4 above the benchmark price," the agency wrote.  The report also specified that oil...