Financial Times Europe - 08.04.2020

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Briefing

i U science chief quits over virus battleE

European Research Council head Mauro Ferrari has

resigned from the continent’s flagship scientific

body after failing to persuade Brussels to set up a

large-scale programme to fight Covid-19.— PAGE 2

i ufthansa slashes fleet by 40 planesL

The airline has said it will decommission more than

40 aircraft and axe its Germanwings low-cost arm,

warning it will take years to return to the industry’s

pre-pandemic peak in passenger numbers.— PAGE 6

i russels warns of medical bidding warB

EU crisis management chief Janez Lenarcic has

warned there is a “global scramble” for medical

equipment, after days of claims that cargoes have

been suddenly diverted to the US.— PAGE 3

i ellcome Trust in $8bn virus rallying cryW

The global medical research

foundation has urged business

to finance the search for a

coronavirus vaccine, saying it is

the “best exit strategy” from

crippling lockdowns.— PAGE 3

i oubt raised over school closure policyD

A UK study has found closures do little to slow the

coronavirus spread and their economic costs could

outweigh benefits. Some 1.6bn people in 188 nations

are said to have been hit by the strategy.— PAGE 4

i apan gambles on partial lockdownJ

Prime minister Shinzo Abe has declared a “state of

emergency” hat gives governors in seven urbant

prefectures the power to request business closures

but many will be allowed to stay open.— PAGE 2

i YSE to review circuit-breaker systemsN

President Stacey Cunningham has told the FT that a

review will focus on the settings for circuit breakers

for futures on the index. Any changes would have to

be agreed with rival exchange groups.— PAGE 9

Datawatch

An Italian story

Family-owned steel group’s journey

through the crisis— FT SERIES, PAGE 3

WEDNESDAY8 APRIL 2020 WORLD BUSINESS NEWSPAPER EUROPE

World Markets

STOCK MARKETS

Apr 7 prev %chg

S&P 500 2721.12 2663.68 2.

Nasdaq Composite 8025.53 7913.24 1.

Dow Jones Ind 23278.30 22679.99 2.

FTSEurofirst 300 1284.98 1263.02 1.

Euro Stoxx 50 2856.41 2795.97 2.

FTSE 100 5704.45 5582.39 2.

FTSE All-Share 3141.28 3058.85 2.

CAC 40 4438.27 4346.13 2.

Xetra Dax 10356.70 10075.17 2.

Nikkei 18950.18 18576.30 2.

Hang Seng 24253.29 23749.12 2.

MSCI World $ 1881.48 1776.86 5.

MSCI EM $ 853.83 831.72 2.

MSCI ACWI $ 448.72 425.35 5.

CURRENCIES

Apr 7 prev

$ per € 1.088 1.

$ per £ 1.231 1.

£ per € 0.884 0.

¥ per $ 108.995 109.

¥ per £ 134.125 133.

SFr per € 1.057 1.

€ per $ 0.919 0.

Apr 7 prev

£ per $ 0.813 0.

€ per £ 1.131 1.

¥ per € 118.608 117.

£ index 77.695 77.

SFr per £ 1.195 1.

COMMODITIES

Apr 7 prev %chg

Oil WTI $ 26.27 26.08 0.

Oil Brent $ 33.12 33.05 0.

Gold $ 1648.30 1613.10 2.

INTEREST RATES

price yield chg

US Gov 10 yr 0.78 0.

UK Gov 10 yr 0.41 0.

Ger Gov 10 yr 104.25 -0.32 0.

Jpn Gov 10 yr 0.00 0.

US Gov 30 yr 134.06 1.36 0.

Ger Gov 2 yr 105.26 -0.63 0.

price prev chg

Fed Funds Eff 0.65 1.58 -0.

US 3m Bills 0.15 0.10 0.

Euro Libor 3m -0.23 -0.23 0.

UK 3m 0.65 0.64 0.

Prices are latest for edition Data provided by Morningstar

GEORGE PARKER AND LAURA HUGHES

LONDON

Britain’s chief medical officer has

admitted that the UK has a “lot to

learn” from Germany on its rapid roll-

out of coronavirus testing, as Downing

Street said prime minister Boris John-

son remained in a “stable” condition in

an intensive care unit.

Chris Whitty’s frank admission was

made after many weeks in which Mr

Johnson and fellow ministers defended

their policy of ending mass community

testing on March 12, when as few as

5,000 Britons were thought to be

infected by the disease.

As Britain’s daily death rate hit a

record 786, taking total hospital deaths

to more than 6,000, Prof Whitty told a

Downing Street press conference: “We

all know that Germany got ahead in

terms of its ability to do testing for the

virus andwe’ve been trying to learn the

lessons from that.”

While Britain is struggling to carry out

15,000 tests a day — up from only 1,

at the start of the crisis — Germany has

been recording tests of some 50,000 a

day and its death rate is starting to flat-

ten out. The peak of the crisis in the UK

is expected over the Easter weekend.

Germany is reporting around 150

deaths per day. When the UK was the

same number of days into its outbreak,

its daily death toll was more than 500.

Testing is likely to play a key part in an

exit strategy from the UK lockdown, if

ministers can fulfil a promise of increas-

ing testing capacity to 100,000 by the

end of April. For now, tight social dis-

tancing rules are set to remain in force

for some time.

Dominic Raab, foreign secretary and

de facto prime minister in Mr Johnson’s

absence, suggested that a three-week

review of Britain’s lockdown measures

— scheduled to take place early next

week — would be delayed.

Mr Raab said “we need to get beyond

the peak” of the outbreak before decid-

ingwhen to start easing restrictions, cit-

ing the need to examine evidence of the

effectiveness of the lockdown, which

started on March 23.

But the foreign secretary also

appeared to be playing for time in the

hope that Mr Johnson would be back at

work before big decisions were taken on

the future of Britain’s lockdown meas-

ures and its exit strategy.

Mr Raab said Mr Johnson remained in

critical care but was in a stable condition

and breathing without mechanical

assistance, although he had been given

“standard oxygen treatment”.

Britain looks to German mass testing

model as it seeks path out of lockdown

© THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2020
No: 40,369★

Printed in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin,
Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Orlando, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore,
Seoul, Dubai, Doha

AnalysisiPAGE 8

Japanese companies ride

high on their cash piles

Austria €3.90 Malta €3.
Bahrain Din1.8 Morocco Dh
Belgium €3.90 Netherlands €3.
Bulgaria Lev7.50 Norway NKr
Croatia Kn29 Oman OR1.
Cyprus €3.70 Pakistan Rupee
Czech Rep Kc105 Poland Zl 20
Denmark DKr38 Portugal €3.
Egypt E£45 Qatar QR
Finland €4.70 Romania Ron
France €3.90 Russia €5.
Germany €3.90 Serbia NewD
Gibraltar £2.90 Slovak Rep €3.
Greece €3.70 Slovenia €3.
Hungary Ft1200 Spain €3.
India Rup220 Sweden SKr
Italy €3.70 Switzerland SFr6.
Latvia €6.99 Tunisia Din7.
Lithuania €4.30 Turkey TL
Luxembourg €3.90 UAE Dh20.
North Macedonia Den

More than 10m

Americans filed

new claims for

unemployment

benefits in the

second half of

March. Data

suggest leisure

and hospitality

was the sector

hit hardest.

Government was

the only category

that added jobs

Hospitality hit

Change in US employment (’)

- - 

Hospitality

Education & health

Business services

Retail

Construction

Other services

Manufacturing

Mining & logging

Government

Only sector

where

employment

has risen

Data seasonally adjusted

Source: Deutsche Bank Research, Mar 

Martin Wolf

Our path lies between mass deaths

and economic mayhem— PAGE 17

Writers blocked

Literature’s logistical struggle in a

time of Covid-19— NOTEBOOK, PAGE 16

3 Virus reports

Pages 2-

3 Corporate

impact

Pages 6-

3 Markets

Pages 9-

3 Editorial

Comment

Page 16

3 Opinion

Page 17

3 LexPage 18

Inside

DELPHINE STRAUSS— LONDON

The coronavirus pandemic will cut
working hours by almost 7 per cent
worldwide in the second quarter ofthis
year, a “catastrophic” effect equivalent
to the loss of 195m full-time workers,
the International Labour Organization
warned yesterday.
The UN agency said 1.25bn workers —
almost two-fifths of the 3.3bn-strong
global workforce — werein sectors suf-
fering drastic output falls, from retail
and real estate to manufacturing,
accommodation and food services.
More than four-fifths of the global
workforce live in countries where full or
partial lockdown measures are in place.
“Workers and businesses are facing
catastrophe, in both developed and

developing economies,” said Guy Ryder,

ILO director-general. “It will hit the

most vulnerable the hardest.”

The scale and speed of job losses

across the developed world has taken

policymakers by surprise. Almost 10m

people in the US filed initial jobless

claims in the last two weeks of March,

and many economists expect the US

unemployment rate to rise rapidly

above 10 per cent. There are job losses

on a similar scale in Europe, although

many workers can access government

wage subsidy schemes designed to limit

long-term unemployment.

Although people in temporary or low-

paid jobs tend to be hardest hit, the

impact of the economic shutdown is

widespread. According to a survey for

the Financial Times and the Peter G

Peterson Foundation, 73 per cent of

Americans say their family income has

been reduced by the crisis. The propor-

tion is similar for families making more

than $100,000 a year and for those on

less than $50,000.

An ILO analysis three weeks ago sug-

gested the pandemic would lead to 25m

job lossesthis year, more thanafter the

2008 financial crisis. Mr Ryder said it

now seemed likely that more than 30m

jobs were lost in the first quarter alone.

The ILO says the extent of job losses

over the year will depend on the policies

governments adopt but it predicts a far

more severe short-term impact, after

using more timely business survey data

and Google search trends to illustrate

“the dire reality of the current labour

market situation”.

It predictedthatthe number of hours

worked globally would fall 6.7 per cent

in the second quarter of 2020 compared

with the previous three months, reflect-

ing both lay-offs and other temporary

working time reductions. This would be

equivalent to the loss of 195m full-time

jobs, based on a 40-hour working week.

The ILO made its estimate using the

historical relationship between working

hours and purchasing managers’ sur-

veys of business conditions. The ILO

assumedthatother countries taking the

same measures to control the spread of

the virus would face a similar hit to the

effect in the surveyed countries.

The surveys do not provide a picture

of how deep or how long businesses

expects the downturn to be.

Additional reporting by Lauren Fedor

Pandemic will destroy equivalent

of 195m jobs globally, warns UN

3 ILO calculates 7% cut in second-quarter work 3 73% of Americans suffer loss of income

Africa burden

Call for pause

on $115bn debt

A health worker conducts door-to-door
screening for Covid-19 in the Bo-Kaap
district of Cape Town during a 21-day
national lockdown.
South Africa is one of 21 African
nations owing a total of $115bn to the
private sector, according to Moody’s, the
rating agency. Yesterday, leading Afri-
cans, led by Tidjane Thiam, the French-
Ivorian former head of Credit Suisse,
called for a two-year moratorium on
payments to give African governments
the fiscal space to fight thepandemic.
“I would use the word standstill
rather than moratorium,” Mr Thiam
said. “If we don’t do this, there is a risk
that official assistance will end up fund-
ing the private sector.”
Report age 4p
NicBothma/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

APRIL 8 2020 Section:FrontBack Time: 4/20207/ - 19:04 User:simon.roberts Page Name:1FRONT USA, Part,Page,Edition:EUR, 1, 1