本周国际要闻
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经济
Saudi Arabia said it would cut oil production by another 1m barrels a day from next month, furthering its effort to shore up oil prices. Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates swiftly followed with their own reductions. OPEC’s deal with Russia last month, which ended their abrupt price war and made record cuts to output, has done little to increase prices. Brent crude is trading at around $30 a barrel, halfits level in mid-February.
沙特表示，从下个月起，将每日石油产量再削减100万桶，进一步提振油价。科威特和阿拉伯联合酋长国紧随其后，也迅速削减了本国的石油产量。欧佩克上月与俄罗斯达成的协议结束了两国突然爆发的价格战，并创纪录地削减了石油产量，但该协议对油价的上涨作用甚微。布伦特原油目前的价格约为每桶30美元，较2月中旬的水平下降了一半。
Saudi Aramco reported thatits net profit had fallen by 25%, year on year, in the first quarter, to $16.7bn. The state controlled oil company will still pay a shareholder dividend, most of which goes to the Saudi government. With oil revenue sinking, the government is looking at other ways to raise money, and has tripled the kingdom’s value-added tax rate to 15%.
沙特国家石油公司沙特阿美(Saudi Aramco)报告称，今年第一季度，该公司净利润同比下降25%，至167亿美元。这家国有石油公司仍将向股东派发股息，其中大部分将归沙特政府所有。随着石油收入下降，政府开始寻找其他筹资途径，并将该国的增值税税率提高了两倍，至15%。
America officially lost 20.5m jobs in April. The number for just one month dwarfs the 8.6m jobs that were lost over the whole of 2008 and 2009 during the financial crisis. The unemployment rate has soared to 14.7%, the highest since the second world war. Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, conceded that it could hit 25% in the coming months, a level last seen during the Depression.
4月份，美国官方公布的失业人数为2050万。仅一个月的失业人数就超过了2008年和2009年金融危机期间失去的860万个工作岗位。失业率飙升至14.7%，是二战以来的最高水平。财政部长史蒂芬·姆努钦(Steven Mnuchin)承认，未来几个月失业率可能会达到25%，这是大萧条时期的最高水平。
Stock markets took fright after Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, warned that more stimulus from Congress will be required. The Democrats have proposed an extra $3trn in spending, though their plan is not supported by Republicans.
美联储委员会主席杰罗姆·鲍威尔(Jerome Powell)警告称，国会将出台更多刺激措施，股市因此受到惊吓。民主党已经提议增加3万亿美元的支出，尽管他们的计划并未得到共和党的支持。
Despite avoiding a prolonged lockdown, the South Korean economy shed almost half a million jobs in April, the most since 1999 at the tail end of the Asian financial crisis. The pandemic has created a “wartime situation” in the economy, said the country’s president, Moon Jae-in.
尽管没有实施长时间的封锁措施，4月份的韩国经济还是减少了近50万个工作岗位，这是自1999年亚洲金融危机结束以来最多的一次。韩国总统文在寅表示，大流行导致韩国经济出现了“战时局面”。
Britain’s economy was 2% smaller in the first quarter than in the previous three months, the fastest rate of contraction since the global financial crisis of 2007-09. However, the figure only captured a glimpse of the chaos caused by COVID-19.
英国经济第一季度比前三个月萎缩了2%，这是自2007-09年全球金融危机以来萎缩速度最快的一次。然而，这些数据仅仅是初步反映了疫情带来的影响。
Britain’s lockdown began in late March; the economy was 5.8% smaller in that month than it was in February. Forecasters think the economy could shrink by 20-30% in the second quarter. A study by academics at the London Business School found that household spending has plunged by 40-50% during the crisis.
英国的封锁始于三月下旬;当月的经济规模比2月份萎缩了5.8%。预测者认为，第二季度的经济可能会萎缩20-30%。伦敦商学院(London Business School)学者的一项研究发现，危机期间的家庭支出下降了40-50%。
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