1. What was the size of the Franco-German recovery fund, announced this week to ease the economic strain of the coronavirus lockdowns?
A. €300bn
B. €385bn
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C. €420bn
D. €500bn
2. How many worldwide jobs does Rolls-Royce plan to cut in order to cope with a joint demand slump in aerospace and aviation markets?
A. 5,500
B. 6,200
C. 9,000
D. 12,000
3. At its lowest since 2016, to what level did UK inflation fall this week?
A. 1%
B. 0.8%
C. 0.5%
D. 0.45%
4. Which country’s Central Bank has recently filed a $1,000,000,000 lawsuit against the Bank of England?
A. Laos
B. Nicaragua
C. Zimbabwe
D. Venezuela
5. The UK charted new waters in borrowing this week: what was the yield on three-year government bonds in this week’s £3.8bn sale?
A. 0.23%
B. 0.12%
C. 0.051 %
D. -0.003%
6. Which research-based pharmaceutical company recently received $1 billion funding from the US government, for its developments in trialling a Covid-19 vaccine.
A. AstraZeneca
B. GlaxoSmithKline
C. Roche
D. Novartis
7. Since 2015, the UK’s Dormant Assets Scheme has seen over £600m transferred from dormant accounts in UK banks to charitable causes. How much more has been pledged to be retrieved by the Government this week, to help combat coronavirus?
A. £80m
B. £100m
C. £150m
D. £180m
8. Big bank frontline job losses hit a six-year high during the first quarter of 2020. How many jobs were lost?
A. 800
B. 1,600
C. 2,000
D. 2,800
9. UK property transactions have hit a record low this week, at their lowest monthly level since comparable records began in 2005. How many transactions were enacted in April?
A. 59,870
B. 55,090
C. 44,380
D. 38,060
10. Which member of Japanese tech-conglomerate Softbank left the company board this week?
A. Jack Ma
B. Marcelo Claure
C. Yutaka Matsuo
D. Rajeev Misra
Answers
1. D) €500bn. Agreed between French President Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the fund of €500bn has been floated to promote EU integration during a time of crisis.
2. C) 9,000. With 90% of the world’s commercial airline fleet grounded, and income slashed, British manufacturer Rolls Royce has announced plans to cut a total of 9,000 jobs.
3. B) 0.8%. A collapse in commodity prices and increased saving by workers dragged the UK inflation rate down to 0.8%.
4. A) Venezuela. As its financial crisis deepens, Venezuela’s central bank (BVS) has filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the BoE for refusing to release its £200 billion worth of gold reserves, belonging to the South American nation.
5. A) -0.003%. In a symbolic shift in fiscal strategy, the UK sold three-year gilts at a negative yield of 0.003% for the first time in history.
6. A) AstraZeneca. As its Covid-19 vaccine enters the third phases of trials, UK based pharmaceutical AstraZeneca received $1bn funding form the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, with plans to produce one billion doses before September 2020.
7. C) £150m. On Wednesday, culture secretary Oliver Dowden pledged to raise a total of £150m from dormant accounts, including funds raised in this manner earlier this year, to bolster charities against coronavirus losses.
8. A) 2,800. Despite widespread promises to pause redundancies during the Covid-19 crisis, 2,800 front-line jobs have been lost at the big banks, as billions in assets are put aside to weather the financial storm.
9. A) 38,060. Following sliding demand under lockdown, only 38,060 property transactions took place in the UK last month, driven lower than at the bottom of the 2008 financial crisis.
10. A) Jack Ma. After 14 years with the company, former Alibaba chairman Jack Ma announced that he is leaving SoftBank this week to focus on interests in Education.
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