• IDB Invest, part of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), said on Tuesday that it made available another $2 billion to address the coronavirus pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• The multilateral lender can now supply up to $7 billion in financing to support companies affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, including an additional $500 million in long-term loans and $1.5 billion in trade finance, it said in a press release.
• IDB Invest and the Mexican business council CMN announced a program to lend up to $12 billion a year to small businesses to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. Before that, IDB Invest printed $1 billion in two-year bonds in its largest debt sale ever to fund part of its response to COVID-19.

(Source: Latin Finance)

• First-time filings for unemployment insurance hit 3.84 million last week as the wave of economic pain continues, though the worst appears to be in the past, according to Labor Department figures Thursday.
• Jobless claims for the week ended April 25 came in at the lowest level since March 21 but bring the rolling six-week total to 30.3 million as part of the worst employment crisis in U.S. history. Claims hit a record 6.87 million for the week of March 28 and have declined each week since then.
• The surge in unemployment has come amid efforts to contain the coronavirus spread. While some states and municipalities have begun bringing their respective economies back online, much of the key U.S. infrastructure remains on lockdown.

(Source: CNBC)

• The Federal Reserve painted a dour picture of current conditions and pledged Wednesday to continue its historically aggressive policy stance until it is comfortable that the U.S. economy is back on its feet.
• Following this week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting, the central bank said it would maintain its current interest rate target between 0% and 0.25%.

(Source: CNBC)

• Details about this filing are limited at this time.

 (Source: Bloomberg)

• Over the past three weeks some $50 million has been allocated to redistributing excess crops and fresh produce held by farmers in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak in Jamaica and the consequent fall out of demand from the tourism and other markets.
• The Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture Fisheries through its agency, the Rural Agricultural Development Authority working with purveyors in the private sector have been executing the redistribution of fresh produce from areas of glut to consumers under the Government of Jamaica’s $240 million stimulus programme for the agricultural sector.
• In addition to the redistribution programme, the Ministry has established other channels to ensure continued production in the sector, with $100 million allocated to drought mitigation, and $300 million for the Production Incentive Programme.

(Source: JIS)

• For the year ended December 31, 2019, iCreate Ltd. reported a net loss of $45.95Mn (EPS: -$0.24), which is a 209.5% (or $31.10Mn) increase when compared to the $14.84Mn (EPS: -$0.08) loss that was made one year prior.
• This outturn was primarily driven by a 66.4% (or $21.98Mn) increase in total expense and a 518.8% (or $10.87Mn) increase in finance costs, which was outstripped the 44.9% (or $14.31Mn) increase in revenue.
• The company’s stock price has fallen 30.0% since the beginning of the year to end Thursday’s trading session at $0.49.

 (Source: iCreate Financials)

• Puerto Rico will fall into a significant recession in Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20; July 2019-June 2020), as the global Covid-19 pandemic, and measures to contain it locally, hit commerce, investment and exports.
• We forecast a contraction of 4.0% y-o-y in FY20, noting that fiscal stimulus from the local and federal governments will provide a floor to growth. We expect 2.9% growth in FY21.
• We maintain our downbeat long term outlook on economic activity in the territory, though we note that debt renegotiations, currently on hold, are a pivot point for Puerto Rico’s growth trajectory.

(Source: Fitch)

• Guatemala’s current account will flip from a surplus of 2.2% of GDP in 2019 to a deficit of 0.2% in 2020 as a large recession in the US undermines remittance inflows and demand for Guatemalan exports.
• As a result, we at Fitch Solutions have revised down our 2020 current account forecast from a 1.5% surplus to a 0.2% deficit.
• While steeper than expected recession in the US poses downside risks to our forecast, sizeable foreign reserves bolster Guatemala’s overall account stability.

(Source: Fitch)

• Oil rose on Thursday, spurred by rising tensions in the Middle East, output cuts by producing nations to tackle oversupply and the promise of more government stimulus to ease the economic pain of the new coronavirus pandemic.
• Brent crude was up $1.53, 7.5%, at $21.90 a barrel by 0822 GMT. U.S. crude rose $1.53, or 11.1%, at $15.31 a barrel.
• The rally on Thursday followed an announcement from President Donald Trump he had instructed the U.S. Navy to fire on any Iranian ships that harass it in the Gulf, although he added later he was not changing the military’s rules of engagement.

(Source: CNBC)

• A record 26 million Americans likely sought unemployment benefits over the last five weeks, confirming that all the jobs created during the longest employment boom in U.S. history were wiped out in about a month as the novel coronavirus savages the economy.
• Thursday’s weekly jobless claims report from the Labor Department will add to a growing pile of increasingly bleak economic data.
• It will come amid rising protests against nationwide lockdowns to control the spread of COVID-19, the potentially lethal respiratory illness caused by the virus.

(Source: CNBC)