Quiz of the week 30 May – 5 June

1. Which country is facing its first recession in nearly 30 years after the pandemic caused its economy to contract during the first quarter of the year?

a. Australia
b. New Zealand
c. Japan
d. Philippines

2. The European Central Bank said this week it would expand its bond buying programme by €600bn and extend it until 2021. What effect did this have on the euro?

a. It dropped
b. It stayed the same
c. It rose

3. How long has America's Congressional Budget Office estimated it will take the US economy to recover from the pandemic?

a. One year
b. Five years
c. Eight years
d. Ten years

4. The Democratic Republic of Congo is facing a new outbreak of which disease?

a. Covid-19
b. Measles
c. Ebola
d. Tuberculosis

5. Why are protesters taking to the streets for the tenth night in a row in the United States?

a. They don’t want to wear masks and want shops to reopen
b. They are protesting against unemployment figures
c. They are protesting against racism and police brutality
d. They want to impeach Trump because of his poor coronavirus response

6. Which east African country is looking to restructure $11bn in external debt?

a. Zambia
b. Malawi
c. Mozambique
d. Zimbabwe

7. Brazil saw record outflows of how much in the four months from February to May as investors continue to withdraw from Latin America’s largest economy?

a. $12.8bn
b. $10.8bn
c. $11.8bn
d. $9.8bn

8. Which country is struggling to raise its birth rate as it fell for the fourth year in a row?

a. Taiwan
b. Hong Kong
c. Singapore
d. Japan

9. Which country is seeking a $10bn loan from the International Monetary Fund?

a. Lebanon
b. Jordan
c. Syria
d. Turkey

10. When has airline Virgin Atlantic said it plans to resume scheduled passenger flights from the UK?

a. 15 June
b. 30 June
c. 15 July
d. 20 July

Answers

1. a) Australia. Australia’s GDP fell by 0.3% in the three months to march.

2. c) It rose. The euro surged after this bigger-than-expected boost to its stimulus package to combat the economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis was announced.

3. d) Ten years.

4. c) Ebola. A second Ebola outbreak has been reported in the DRC, which is struggling to contain alongside Covid-19 and the world’s largest measles epidemic.

5. c) They are protesting against racism and police brutality. The latest wave of protests in the US was sparked by the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died after white police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed face down in the street. Protesters are calling for an end to police brutality and reform of the police system.

6. a) Zambia “After Argentina defaulted last month in the middle of negotiations with its bondholders, Zambia’s ability to fix what Bwalya Ng’andu, the finance minister, has called the country’s “over-ambition in terms of borrowing” is seen as the next big test of a sovereign borrower’s response to the pandemic,” says Joseph Cotterill in the Financial Times.

7. c) $11.8bn.

8. d) Japan. Japan, one of the world’s oldest nations, saw births fall by over 50,000 in 2019 to 865,234, a post-World War II low.

9. a) Lebanon. Lebanon’s economy was ailing before the coronavirus outbreak, and government-imposed shutdowns have forced even more Lebanese into poverty. The World Bank estimates that more than half of the country’s population now live below the poverty line.

10. d) 20 July. Virgin Atlantic will restart operations with flights from London Heathrow to New York, Los Angeles, Orlando, Hong Kong and Shanghai.