World report: South Korea goes into economic downturn as Australia flags enormous deficit | South Korea

South Korea’s overall economy has recorded its worst overall performance in much more than 20 decades amid plummeting exports as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Asia’s fourth-most significant financial system contracted 2.9% year-on-12 months in the April-June period, the Bank of Korea claimed, following a fall of 1.3% in the 1st quarter, putting the nation into economic downturn for the initially time in about two decades. It is the swiftest drop given that the aftermath of the 1998 Asian money crisis, when it fell 3.8%.

South Korea was a single of the worst hit nations around the world outside China in the early aspect of the pandemic, recording close to 900 new cases a working day in February. But by April, an intense tracking and tracing marketing campaign experienced reduced the every day figures to single digits. The nation is now battling new outbreaks, such as a person centred on bars in Seoul.

South Korea’s economy is very trade-dependent, and exports plunged 13.6% year-on-12 months in the second quarter – the sharpest decrease since 1974, in the wake of the OPEC oil disaster. It was mostly driven by falls in automobile, coal and petroleum items, according to the Financial institution of Korea.

The Intercontinental Monetary Fund last thirty day period also lower its growth forecast for South Korea, predicting it would shrink 2.1% this 12 months – when compared with an normal 8.% drop for the world’s sophisticated economies.

Australia much too revealed sobering economic figures on Thursday, saying its major price range deficit considering that the 2nd environment war. The deficit – almost $A86bn (US$61.5bn) would increase to $184bn in the following money year, according to the country’s treasurer, Josh Frydenberg.

“These deficits expose the serious expense to the spending budget of protecting life and livelihoods as end result of coronavirus,” he mentioned.

It’s second most significant town, Melbourne, was yet again announced much more than 400 new coronavirus conditions, as the pandemic in the town ongoing to improve. People there ended up compelled to wear masks from Thursday.

The United States neared four million instances of coronavirus, and extra than 143,000 deaths, as the pandemic surged in the south and west of the country.

President Trump held a different coronavirus briefing on his individual, at which he cited Black Life Subject protests as between the possible induce of the modern surge in circumstances. He also pointed to Memorial Working day, younger people today congregating and amplified journey.

“Cases begun to increase among the youthful Us citizens soon after demonstrations, which you know very well about, which presumably triggered a broader leisure of mitigation attempts nationwide,” he stated.

Just one of his critical coronavirus process power users, Dr Deborah Birx, who has not appeared at the not long ago restarted briefings, advised Fox Information that opening up the nation was also a aspect.

“This is a really distinct epidemic that we experienced in March and April … and it will involve more assessments. And so this surge and this diploma of situations is so widespread as opposed to beforehand. It does have to be tackled,” Birx mentioned.

The US has carried out some 51.6m tests, with 4.9m positive benefits, or a 9% optimistic rate for those people examined. California recorded 12,807 conditions, surpassing New York as the point out with the most scenarios recorded in a solitary working day.

Globally, infections handed 15m, with 622,207 fatalities.

Hong Kong claimed a document 113 new conditions for Wednesday, with only 5 of them crucial and 63 with an mysterious source. The authorities reported the risk of substantial scale community outbreak was now the highest considering that the pandemic started.

“New conditions recorded for the duration of the interval from July 15 to July 21 include things like 393 instances with out vacation background for the duration of the incubation period and 56 imported situations,” it reported in a statement.

“The current emergence of regional conditions of unknown infection resource signifies the existence of sustained silent transmission in the community.”

In other coronavirus developments:

• South Africa recorded a 24-hour maximize of 572 Covid-19 fatalities, bringing its total range of fatalities to 5,940. This week the WHO warned that infections in the nation may well be a “precursor” to a surge in Africa. It has 394,948 infections – all around half of people on the continent.

• Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on Wednesday downplayed the value of carrying deal with masks all through the pandemic, contacting his treasury secretary’s assertion that making use of them would be a aspect in reactivating the economy “disproportionate”. The nation has a lot more than 362,000 infections and far more than 41,000 deaths.

• Chilean senators have permitted a controversial bill that will allow citizens to withdraw 10% of their pension financial savings to enable relieve the economic impact of the virus.