The coronavirus pandemic pushed most of the world's major economies into unprecedented contractions in the second quarter, except for China which escaped a recession.Here are second-quarter changes in gross domestic product (GDP) compared to the previous quarter for the world's top economies.

Negotiators from the United States (US) and China will discuss today the "phase one" trade deal signed earlier this year – before the coronavirus slammed the world economy and relations between the two economic powers took a turn for the worse.Washington and Beijing's January deal represented a partial truce in their months-long trade war, and obligated Beijing to import an additional US$200 billion in American products over two years, ranging from cars to machinery to oil and

Observers of United States (US)-China relations increasingly talk of a new cold war. On top of a long-running trade war, the two countries now find themselves in a destructive cycle of mutual sanctions, consulate closings, and increasingly bellicose official speeches. Efforts to decouple the US economy from China’s are underway as tensions mount in both, the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. A cold war between the US and China would leave both countries and the world worse off.

Indonesia's coronavirus-hit economy contracted in the second quarter for the first time in more than two decades, with warnings that its recovery could be among the weakest in Southeast Asia.Output in the region's biggest economy slumped 5.3 percent on-year in April-June, the statistics agency said Wednesday, as retail sales and manufacturing took a hit.That marked Indonesia's first contraction since the first quarter of 1999 during the Asian financial crisis, putting it on cou

COVID-19 hit the Chinese economy hard in the first quarter of 2020, causing real gross domestic product (GDP) to contract by 6.8 percent year on year. But since the city of Wuhan emerged from lockdown in early April, the economy has gradually returned to normal, and grew by 3.2 percent in the second quarter. According to the consensus view, China’s current potential GDP growth rate is six percent.

According to the World Bank’s latest economic update on Cambodia, the country’s economy this year will contract by -1 and -2.9 percent. This is a worrying sign given the kingdom’s reliance on tourism, manufacturing exports, agriculture and construction.

Indonesia's central bank on Thursday cut interest rates for the fourth time this year, with Southeast Asia's biggest economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic.Policymakers at Bank Indonesia reduced the key lending rate by 25 basis points to 4.00 percent, days after the government warned of a looming recession.Central bank governor Perry Warjiyo said the latest rate cut was a "further step" to boost the struggling economy, adding that there were signs of a recovery as a

Singapore's economy shrank more than 40 percent in the second quarter as the coronavirus plunged the Southeast Asian financial hub into recession for the first time in more than a decade, official data showed Tuesday.The 41.2 percent quarter-on-quarter drop was the worst ever recorded in the city-state, which is considered a barometer for the health of global trade. On-year, the economy contracted 12.6 percent in April-June, according to preliminary data released by the trade mi

ASEAN member state Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation in the world – confirmed its first COVID-19 cases in early March. Since then, the number of infections in the archipelago have soared. The largest increase of new cases in a single day was on 9 July with 2,657 cases reported. To date, over 76,000 coronavirus cases have been recorded in Indonesia – the highest in Southeast Asia.

The COVID-19 pandemic is entering its second phase as countries gradually reopen their economies and loosen or even revoke strict social-distancing measures. Yet, barring the arrival of an effective, universally available therapy or vaccine, the transition back to “normal” will be more aspirational than real.