Having appeared to stabilise in July and August the number of new cases of COVID-19 globally has edged up to new highs in the last fortnight. Europe is seeing a second wave, particularly in Spain and France, but the case rate in the US has fallen.

In their response to the Covid-19 pandemic, governments have learned and applied many of the lessons of past crises. Early testing and tracing at scale gave countries including Germany, Taiwan and South Korea a lead in combating the virus.

Barings Bank collapse. Noble Group’s demise. The 2020 commodities scandals of Agritrade, Hin Leong, Zenrock, Sugih Energy and Hontop Energy. Will these recent commodity financial scandals shatter Singapore’s reputational armour?

TFG heard from Dr. Özge TOSUN, legal counsel at Export Credit Bank of TURKEY (Turk Eximbank) on the various surety bond dilemmas in Turkish insurance including the impracticality of expecting Turkish law to govern all overseas contracts.

Soaring demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) and COVID-19 tests resulted in a scramble for supplies. Governments are borrowing on a grand scale to subsidise and protect domestic capacity.

The pandemic has been vastly disruptive. It has prompted powerful responses from the government and the private sector. The number of new cases globally appears to have stabilised. Lockdown measures early in the quarter weighed heavily on UK growth but the recovery picked up some pace in June, with GDP rising 8.7% from May.

Having an understanding of the types of LC availability, and the differences between them, will help the beneficiary formulate the terms of the letters of credit that it would be willing to accept, and to mention such terms in their discussions and sales contracts with their clients.

Under the Export Development Guarantee (EDG), UKEF can provide partial guarantees covering up to 80 per cent of the risk to lenders for a maximum repayment period of up to five years.

Forecasters are predicting official figures released this week will show the UK economy suffered the worst impact from the coronavirus pandemic of any major advanced economy.

Your Monday morning coffee briefing from TFG. Productivity in the UK dipped in the first quarter of the year and is likely to fall further as estimates suggest that the fall in output has been greater than the fall in hours worked. Various causes of this slowdown have been proposed including low interest rates, low investment, short-termism in the corporate sector, austerity, Brexit and mismeasurement to name but a few.