(Bloomberg) -- Ghana’s Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta cut the country’s economic growth forecast for 2020 to the lowest in 37 years due to the collapse in oil prices and the impact of the coronavirus.Growth in gross domestic product could slow to 1.5% with a partial lockdown of the economy and may “further worsen in the event of full lockdown,” Ofori-Atta told lawmakers Monday in the capital, Accra, according to a copy of his speech. The estimate compares with the government’s initial projection of 6.8% and will be slowest since the economy contracted in 1983, when the West African nation was under military rule, data from the International Monetary Fund show.The virus is bringing an abrupt end to three years of GDP expansion of 6% or more, with a 14-day lockdown that started Monday in the biggest cities to avoid a mass outbreak. The country has registered 152 confirmed cases and five deaths since the first detection of the disease on March 12.“The reason why every single person in this country must exercise the highest level of self discipline is evidently clear in the economic numbers,” Ofori-Atta said. The greater the level of self discipline and responsibility that citizens maintain, “the greater chances we have in avoiding mass job losses and its concomitant hardships,” he said.The government expects a 5.7-billion cedi ($989 million) shortfall in oil receipts and a further gap of 2.3 billion cedis from lower tax revenues and duties, said Ofori-Atta. This will widen the targeted budget deficit to 6.6% of GDP from an initial forecast of 4.7%, even after adopting “extraordinary measures” to close the gap, he said.The measures include a deferral of interest payments on non-marketable bonds and securing an emergency IMF facility of 3.1 billion cedis, he said. The government will also propose a change in legislation to allow borrowing of as much as 10% of the previous year’s tax revenue from the central bank “in the event of tight financing conditions.”Ghana’s debt increased to 218 billion cedis, equivalent to 63% of GDP as of December 2019, from 173.1 billion cedis, or 57.6% of GDP, a year earlier.(Updates with debt data in last paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Around 24 million people in East Asia and the Pacific will be affected due to the virus impact.

The global flavored yogurt market size is expected to reach USD 59.2 billion by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 6.9% in the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is driven by the changing dietary habits and increasing health awareness among consumers. The consumption of the flavored yogurt has been on the rise in the recent past years owing to the factor such as increasing disposable income of middle-age group. Growing popularity of flavored yogurt as dessert option which acts as a ready to eat food item and a rising demand from developing countries are considered to be major factors fueling the growth in the market. The flavored yogurts can be classified into drinkable and spoonful ranges wherein fruit flavored yogurts such as strawberry, blueberry, raspberry are possessing high competition to the ice-creams or desserts. Health issues such as high calorie, fat can be resolved by the low-fat flavored yogurts as a good alternative option for ice-creams and desserts.

As more states impose restrictions, President Trump and governors quarrel over test kits.

(Bloomberg) -- At least there’s this: The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. has fallen below $2 for the first time in four years.That’s average -- which California is not. As crude oil prices have tanked, depressed by the coronavirus pandemic and the market-share war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, at least a dozen service stations in the Golden State were charging more than $4 as of Monday, according to the tracker GasBuddy. One unnamed location in Santa Clara, near the heart of Silicon Valley, was demanding the most that GasBuddy’s research found in the state: $4.79.According to AAA, only Hawaii had higher average prices than California, at $3.36 versus $3.06. That compared to the lowest of 95 cents at one outlet in Oklahoma and another in Wisconsin, according to GasBuddy. Meanwhile, in New York, just five stations were asking more than $3 and neighboring Connecticut didn’t have a posting at more than $2.99, GasBuddy found -- though suburban Connecticut residents will tell you they’ve seen signs for $3-plus.The U.S. has always been a very mixed market when it comes to gasoline, with different taxes and smog-control regulations in different states. Another thing California and Hawaii have in common: They’re nowhere close to the shale formations producing most of the nation’s crude. In contrast, Texas -- home of the oil-rich Permian Basin and almost a third of the country’s fuel refining capacity -- boasted pump prices averaging about $1.75.But wherever you are filling up, with the U.S. benchmark crude fetching just about $20 a barrel on the futures market -- near the lowest level in 18 years -- you should expect to see downward pressure at the pump, even in California.“There’s clearly going to be a drop,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, director of the energy security and climate change program at the Council on Foreign Relations. Local supply and demand will play a role in the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s going to be regionally influenced because some people are more compliant with the shelter-in-place orders than others.”In California, there have been mitigating factors. An explosion late last month at Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s Los Angeles-area refinery prompted wholesale gasoline prices in Southern California to jump at the time the most in seven weeks.“And then Covid happened,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “California has a lot of catching up to do.”It will always lag, though, price-wise. California adopted the nation’s cleanest fuel formulas in the 1990s in a bid to reduce its infamous smog. The side effect was cutting the state off from the national fuel market. Few refineries outside the state make the California-grade gasoline.For all that, average gasoline prices actually declined more in California last week than nationally -- 14 cents compared with 10 cents. De Haan said prices along the West Coast could fall as much as $1 a gallon over the next month.“The West Coast without a doubt has the most distance for average prices to fall,” he said. How low, nobody knows.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

D-Wave, the Canadian quantum computing company, today announced that it is giving anyone who is working on responses to the COVID-19 free access to its Leap 2 quantum computing cloud service. "When we launched leap 2 on February 26th with our hybrid solver service, we launched a quantum computing capability that is now able to solve fairly large problems -- large scale problems -- problems at the scale of solving real-world production problems," Baratz told me.

The new grade of MATER-BI for extrusion coating and extrusion lamination on paper, board and other substrates which can be composted in standard industrial plants is now ready for the market.

Forecasts & Analysis ($b Value & '000 units Volume), by End-User (Commercial Van, Personal Van, Emergency Van, Other Van) and by Region Plus Profiles of Leading Automotive OEMs, Companies & Manufacturers

As Demand Increases, Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida Provides Much Needed Civil Legal AidPR NewswireORLANDO, Fla., March 31, 2020CLSMF Helps Low-income People Protect Their Livelihoods, Their Health, and Their FamiliesORLANDO, Fla.

Passive investing in an index fund is a good way to ensure your own returns roughly match the overall market. Active...