Author: LoveWorld UK

Britain’s housing market is largely on pause due to the coronavirus crisis which will make it hard to calculate price changes ahead, but it is too early to gauge the long-term impact of the government’s shutdown, mortgage lender Halifax said. Halifax said house prices in March were flat month-on-month after a 0.2% rise in February. A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to a 0.1% uptick. In annual terms, house prices rose 3.0% in March, speeding up from growth of 2.8% in February but a smaller increase than the Reuters poll forecast of 3.3%.

UK shares gained on Monday, led by battered travel stocks and insurers, as investors cheered signs of slowing coronavirus-related deaths in the hotspots of western Europe. The internationally focussed FTSE 100 .FTSE gained 1.5%, but underperformed its European peers, as exporters were pressured by a recovering pound. [GBP/] The currency recouped from an overnight dip as Prime Minister Boris Johnson was expected to return to his office “shortly” after being hospitalised with persistent coronavirus symptoms on Sunday night. Stock markets globally were on steadier grounds after last week’s modest selloff as new infections and deaths slowed in Italy and Spain, while hard-hit…

India is reportedly “considering” a request by Donald Trump to release stocks of a drug the US president has called a “game-changer” in the fight against Covid-19. Mr Trump called India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, a day after the country banned the export of hydroxychloroquine, which it manufactures in large quantities. The two leaders are on friendly terms, and Mr Trump recently made a high-profile trip to India. But is India really in a position to help the US? And does hydroxychloroquine even work against the coronavirus? What is hydroxychloroquine? Hydroxychloroquine is very similar to Chloroquine, one of…

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was undergoing tests in hospital on Monday as he is still suffering coronavirus symptoms 10 days after testing positive for COVID-19, but the government insisted he remained in charge. Johnson, who had been isolating in Downing Street after testing positive for the virus last month, was taken to hospital on Sunday night because he still had a high temperature and his doctors felt he needed additional tests. His office and ministers said Johnson, 55, continued to run the government, that the prime minister was doing well and that he would undergo “routine tests” as a…

VIENNA (Reuters) – Austria plans to reopen smaller shops from next week in its first step to loosen a lockdown that has slowed the spread of the coronavirus, as long as the public continue to observe the lockdown broadly, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Monday. Kurz told a news conference that since Austria had acted earlier than most countries, that gave it the ability to reopen shops sooner as well. If all goes well, it will reopen non-essential shops of less than 400 square metres and DIY shops on April 14, followed by all shops and malls on May 1,…

European shares rebounded on Monday as a slowdown in coronavirus deaths raised hopes that nationwide lockdowns were starting to show results, while Rolls Royce soared after becoming the latest multinational firm to raise cash to weather an economic slump. The British aero-engine maker (RR.L) jumped 15.4% after losing more than half its value this year, as it secured an extra 1.5 billion pounds ($1.8 billion) in reserves, even though it suspended its dividend for the first time since 1987. The benchmark STOXX 600 index was up 2.7%, after ending Friday with its sixth weekly decline in seven as the health…

The coronavirus outbreak has left many people in the UK unsure about their income and how they’ll get money while we’re in lockdown. So BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat has been speaking to experts at Citizens Advice England to find out what you can do if you’re worried about paying your bills. Can I suspend bill payments? If you’re unable to pay a utility bill – like gas or electric – you should contact the provider as soon as possible, says Graham O’Malley, debt expert at Citizens Advice. “Depending on the type of bill, they may be able to arrange a…

Google is to publicly track people’s movements over the course of the coronavirus pandemic. The tech firm will publish details of the different types of places people are going to on a county-by-county basis in the UK, as well as similar data for 130 other countries. The plan is to issue a regular updates with the figures referring back to activity from two or three days prior. The company has promised that individuals’ privacy will be preserved. The readings are based on location data gathered via the Google Maps app or one of the firm’s other mobile services. The firm typically uses…

The government will cover the losses of bus companies in England over the next three months to ensure that services can still run. The UK’s bus industry says passenger numbers have “fallen off a cliff” since the government advised people against all non-essential travel. That caused bus firms to cut services. But a new £167m fund will ensure that bus companies can cover their costs on essential services so that key workers, such as NHS staff, can get to work. Similar agreements are already in place in Scotland and Wales. The deal in Wales includes free bus travel for NHS…

The OPEC+ crude oil exporter group is debating cutting global supply by 10 million barrels per day (bpd), an OPEC source said on Friday, adding that any further cuts must include producers from outside the alliance. U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he had brokered a deal that could result in Russia and Saudi Arabia cutting output by 10 million to 15 million bpd, representing 10-15% of global supply. Trump said he made no offer to cut U.S. output. The source added that OPEC+ is watching the outcome of a meeting between Trump and the oil companies later on…