With the coronavirus devastating jobs across the country, desperate Indonesians are flocking to illegal gold mines as the soaring price of the precious metal overrides the risk to their lives and the environment.Spooked by the economic destruction wrought by the pandemic, consumers and investors around the world have been snapping up gold, which is seen as a hedge against volatility, sending its price to a record above US$2,000 an ounce last month.The surge in demand has fuelled a boom in min

COVID-19 has brought the worst economic impacts in the modern era, hitting the world from both, demand and supply sides simultaneously. By 18 September 2020, COVID-19 has infected more than 543,180 people in ASEAN which consists of the 10 member countries that are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Coronavirus-ravaged economies across the Asia Pacific will make a "swoosh-shaped" recovery next year, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) forecast Tuesday, but it warned that further restrictions to combat the contagion could derail the region's return to growth.Developing Asia - stretching from the Cook Islands in the Pacific to Kazakhstan in Central Asia - is expected to contract in 2020 for the first time in nearly six decades, throwing tens of millions of people into poverty,

Nine months have passed since the COVID-19 virus first emerged in Wuhan, China – and the world is still in the midst of containing the deadly outbreak. Over 28 million people across the globe have contracted the disease and more than 900,000 – inching towards a million have perished due to the deadly coronavirus.  The pandemic is not just threatening lives but has also severely affected businesses, local industries and the economy in general.

After decades of impressive growth, for the first time, Southeast Asia is experiencing a drop in measured human development. The economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic will likely take months to reveal itself and years to put right. Yet, a legacy of mobilising under constraints is leading Southeast Asia’s pandemic response.During the first two months of COVID-19 lockdown, the once bustling streets of Bangkok were unusually quiet.

To date, over 3,000 people have contracted the COVID-19 virus in Thailand, with 58 deaths reported from the deadly disease.

The global death toll from the new coronavirus has surpassed 800,000, according to an AFP count on Saturday, with numerous countries ramping up restrictions in an effort to battle an eruption of new cases.Western Europe, particularly Spain, Italy, Germany and France, has been enduring infection levels not seen in many months, sparking fears of a full-fledged second wave.And in Asia, South Korea, which had largely brought the virus under control, became the latest country to announce it would

The coronavirus pandemic may have driven as many as 100 million people back into extreme poverty, World Bank President David Malpass warned Thursday.The Washington-based development lender previously estimated that 60 million people would fall into extreme poverty due to COVID-19, but the new estimate puts the deterioration at 70 to 100 million, and he said "that number could go higher" if the pandemic worsens or drags on.The situation makes it "imperative" that creditors

Forced off the road by coronavirus lockdowns, Philippine "jeepney" driver Daniel Flores now plies the streets of Manila on foot begging for money to feed his hungry family.The 23-year-old has not picked up a passenger since March when public transport was halted and people ordered to stay home as President Rodrigo Duterte's government tried to slow the fast-spreading contagion.Jeepneys - first made from leftover US jeeps after World War II - are a national symbol in the Philipp

The COVID-19 virus, which first emerged in Wuhan, China has now infected over 20.8 million people worldwide, with over 700,000 fatalities related to the disease. Unfortunately, the coronavirus isn’t merely a health crisis.