The US economy is expected to contract by double digits as unemployment surges, while the federal deficit is seen exploding to $3.7trn in 2020, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday.

Orders for big-ticket manufactured goods in the US plunged 14.4% in March, the second-biggest decline on record. The worse-than-expected slide underscored the severity of the economic impact from the pandemic.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Thursday it would boost its support package by €3bn to help stricken companies and councils across its region mitigate the economic hit from the coronavirus.

The euro zone economy suffered an "unprecedented" collapse according to the latest PMI index put out Thursday by analysis firm IHS Markit.

Italy’s UniCredit on Wednesday became the first major euro zone bank to write down the value of its loans to reflect the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis. Italy’s biggest bank by assets said it would book around €900m in additional loan loss provisions in the first quarter to take into account an expected 13% contraction in the euro zone’s 2020 gross domestic product.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde drew the line on how far the ECB could go in helping virus-stricken euro zone countries on Wednesday, insisting that lending to governments directly would be illegal and handing out cash to citizens difficult.

Wall Street stocks finished sharply higher on Friday, 17 April, closing out a second week of gains as US officials moved forward with plans to gradually reopen the economy.

Sales of new cars in the European Union fell by more than 50% last month, in a record collapse blamed on the novel coronavirus pandemic. Just around 567,000 new cars were registered, some 55.1% fewer than in March 2019, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) said Friday in a monthly bulletin.

Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra will be linked to individual national currencies and overseen by global watchdogs, according a new plan, unveiled by the Libra’s governing body, by which it hopes to win regulatory approval.

An agreement by Group of 20 major economies to suspend official bilateral debt payments by the poorest countries will begin on 1 May and runs through the end of the year, a source familiar with the discussions told Reuters on Wednesday.