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business Thursday 16 april 2020
US relief checks begin arriving as economic damage piles up

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, U.S. manufacturing output
PAUL WISEMAN and dropped 6.3% last month,
KELLI KENNEDY led by plunging production
Associated Press at auto factories, which
WASHINGTON (AP) — Gov- have shut down entirely.
ernment relief checks be- As of last week, some 17
gan arriving in Americans' million people in the U.S.
bank accounts as the had been thrown onto the
economic damage to the unemployment rolls be-
U.S. from the coronavirus cause of the crisis.
piled up Wednesday and "Woke up to our Stimulus
sluggish sales at reopened check in the bank!" Darla
stores in Europe and China Shepherd of Bledsoe in Har-
made it clear that business lan County, Kentucky, post-
won't necessarily bounce ed on Facebook. "Thank
right back when the crisis you Mr. President Trump!"
eases. Shepherd, 38, a health
With lockdowns and other worker in the Appalachian
restrictions bringing facto- coal-mining community,
ries to a shuddering halt, and her husband, Bran-
American industrial output don, 44, are both working.
shriveled in March, register- A shopper walks out of a store in Annapolis, Wednesday, April 15, 2020. But he was laid off from his
ing its biggest decline since Associated Press. quarry job the entire month
the U.S. demobilized in 1946 tomers staying away from topped 130,000 and con- breathing problems has of February, and his wife
at the end of World War II. the reopened businesses firmed infections have sur- been tested for the virus, a said in an interview that the
And retail sales fell by an and workers afraid the passed 2 million, according parliamentary report said. payout would help them
unprecedented 8.7%, with newly restored freedoms to the tally kept by Johns The explosive allegation get caught up on bills.
April expected to be far could put their health at Hopkins University. The fig- was buried in a footnote in "We're your typical Ameri-
worse. risk. ures understate the true the 46-page document. can family. We live payday
The world's biggest econo- In China, millions are still size of the crisis, in part be- — New York Gov. Andrew to payday," said Shepherd,
my began issuing one-time wary of spending much or cause of limited testing, dif- Cuomo said residents will who has a 9-year-old son.
payments this week to tens even going out. Some cit- ferent ways of counting the be required to wear face "It's a blessing. It means a
of millions of people as part ies have resorted to hand- dead, and concealment coverings when they are lot."
of its $2.2 trillion coronavirus ing out shopping vouchers by some governments near others, such as on the Trump has been anxious
relief package, with adults and trying to reassure con- The U.S. has reported ap- street or a subway platform. to see the stay-at-home
receiving up to $1,200 each sumers by showing officials proximately 27,000 deaths He said there will initially be orders and business shut-
and $500 per child to help in state media eating in res- — the highest in the world no penalties for violating downs lifted in the U.S. But
them pay the rent or cover taurants. — and over 600,000 con- the measure. "It can be a those aspirations continue
other bills. The checks will "I put off plans to change firmed infections, by Johns mask. It can be a cloth. It to meet stiff resistance on
be directly deposited into cars and spend almost Hopkins' count. Still, the can be a bandanna. Make the state and local levels.
bank accounts or mailed nothing on eating out or nightmare scenarios pro- it colorful. Make it advertis- New York Mayor Bill de
to households, depending entertainment," said Zhang jecting a far greater num- ing," he said. "What's the Blasio, a liberal Democrat,
on how they filed their tax Hu, a truck salesman in ber of deaths and hospi- big deal?" told Fox News he intends to
returns. Zhengzhou who has gone talizations have not come Around the world, the eco- move cautiously.
Among those who received back to work but has seen to pass, raising hopes from nomic damage from the "In this case, I'll call myself
a check was Jacqueline his income plummet be- coast to coast. effort to "flatten the curve" a conservative," said de
Gonzalez, a 32-year-old sin- cause few people buying In other developments: of infections has mounted Blasio, whose city's death
gle mother who was laid off 20-ton rigs. "I have no idea — An investigation by The alarmingly. toll now tops 10,000. "Look,
from her job as a bartender when the situation will turn Associated Press found that While grocery store sales in I want to see people back
at a sports bar and lives with better." six days of delays by China the U.S. jumped nearly 26% to work as much as any-
her mom, a teacher, in Mi- In Austria, Marie Froehlich, in alerting the public to the as Americans stocked up one. I feel it urgently. But
ami Lakes, Florida. Gonza- who owns a clothing store growing dangers of the vi- on food and other goods we've got to secure the
lez paid her car insurance in Vienna, said her staff rus in mid-January set the to ride out the crisis, auto health and safety first of all
and gave her mother $500 was happy to get back to stage for the global disas- sales plummeted by one- New Yorkers and, obvious-
for rent. She has signed up work after weeks of being ter. quarter and clothing store ly, all Americans. ... We get
for food stamps. cooped up at home. But — Millions of South Korean sales slid by more than half, one chance to get it right."
"There is no other form of in- with her business depen- voters wore masks and the government reported. Foreign leaders, mean-
come for us right now. We dent largely on tourism, maintained social distanc- The category that mostly while, rushed to the de-
have no other choice. We which has dried up amid ing as they voted in par- includes online shopping fense of the World Health
can't work from home," she the travel restrictions, she liamentary elections, with rose more than 3%. Organization after Trump
said. "We're just sitting here. expects it will take months turnout surprisingly high. "With clear signs of pan- vowed to cut off payments
Bills are racking up." to return to normal. The government resisted ic buying of necessities to the U.N. agency for not
In an unprecedented "Until then, we are in crisis calls to postpone the bal- and the fact that lock- sounding the alarm over
move, President Donald mode," she said. loting, seen as a midterm downs were introduced the virus sooner.
Trump's name will be print- The scene was similar in referendum on President only around the middle of EU foreign policy chief Jo-
ed on the checks. hard-hit Italy, where the Moon Jae-in. the month means that far sep Borrell said the WHO is
Meanwhile, the first steps streets of Rome were large- — The death toll in Iran is worse is to come in April now "needed more than
in lifting the economically ly deserted despite an eas- probably almost twice the and the second quarter ever."
crippling restrictions in oth- ing of restrictions this week officially reported figure more generally," said Mi- "Only by joining forces can
er parts of the world are that allowed some stores to of almost 4,800 as a result chael Pearce, an econo- we overcome this crisis
running into resistance, with reopen. of undercounting and be- mist at the consulting firm that knows no borders," he
shoppers and other cus- Worldwide, deaths have cause not everyone with Capital Economics. said.q