Your Monday morning coffee briefing from TFG. The speed and severity of the economic downturn has been far greater than the last recession, in 2008–09. The IMF forecasts that world GDP will shrink by almost 5% this year. Growth is coming back as the lockdown eases.
Trade falls steeply in first half of 2020
The WTO estimates that second quarter global trade was 18.5% lower than levels seen last year, the steepest decline on record. As the COVID-19 pandemic upended the global economy, rapid government responses helped temper the contraction. While trade volumes will register a steep decline in 2020, they are unlikely to reach the worst-case scenario projected in April. Read more →
‘Bounce back’ plan for agriculture, food and drink industry launched
The Department for International Trade (DIT) and Defra announce new strategic interventions to help businesses in the agriculture industry grow their trade activity overseas. The UK agriculture, food and drink industry has been significantly impacted by COVID-19 so these measures will support producers, manufacturers and agri-tech companies across the food supply chain. Read more →
The dangerous war on supply chains
Chief economics commentator Martin Wolf CBE at the Financial Times talked about the costly errors of protectionist views around being overdependent on global supply chains for medical equipment and ventilators. Given the current collapse in trade as forecasted by the WTO, this article discusses the need to diversify suppliers and build robust supply chains. Read more →
Contour partners with essDOCS following successful Rio Tinto & Baosteel transaction
Contour, the Singapore-based open trade finance network, today announced its partnership with essDOCS, the leading enabler of paperless trade.The two companies completed a full integration between Contour and essDOCS’ CargoDocs solution in order to enhance their joint offering for future customer transactions. Read more →
Organisations face increasing operational challenges due to domino effect of Covid-19
According to ACCA UK’s Covid-19 global survey ‘The Road to Recovery’, challenges are growing for business irrespective of size, sector or country. ACCA is calling on governments worldwide to review economic rescue packages and enable a return to sustainable growth. Read more →
3 Strategic Multilateral FI Shareholders Step-Up Commitment to TDB With Over USD1.5 Billion
The African Development Bank (AfDB), the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), and the the OPEC Fund have stepped-up their support and commitment to the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB) and its mandate, via record risk sharing facilities as well as new funding, totalling over half a billion USD. Read more →
FCI publishes the 2020 Global Factoring Annual Review
The FCI Annual Review is a globally recognised publication in the world of Factoring and Receivables Finance. In addition to publishing the final statistics for the Industry, it includes the highly appreciated Global Industry Annual Report (GIAR) analysis that reports on quantitative but also qualitative data. Read more →
UKEF publishes its 2019-2020 results and new Business Plan for 2020-2024
UK Export Finance (UKEF) has published its results for 2019 to 2020, revealing it provided £4.4 billion in support for UK exports, helping UK companies trade with 69 countries. The Business Plan outlined new objectives that will allow UKEF to adapt its support for SMEs, help businesses across all the regions of the UK and focus its activity on sectors and countries. Read more →
