Asia and Europe risk a coronavirus relapse if they reopen their economies too early and before wide-reaching measures are in place to quickly identify and contain new infections, IMF senior economists said in a blog published on Tuesday. The lockdowns and other restrictions have imposed a significant economic and psychological cost on citizens, and it was understandable that countries wanted to move swiftly to roll back these measures, the authors wrote.

But moving too quickly could put the gains made in halting the spread of Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, at stake and trigger new human and economic costs, wrote Chang Yong Rhee, director of the International Monetary Fund's Asia and Pacific department, and Poul Thomsen, director of the European department. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease official, warned against reopening the economy too soon, telling a Senate panel that communities doing so risk new coronavirus outbreaks.

US consumer prices declined in April by the most on record amid a demand shock as most of the nation shut down to contain the coronavirus pandemic. The core consumer-price index, which excludes volatile food and fuel costs, fell 0.4 per cent from the prior month after a 0.1 per cent decrease in March, Labor Department figures showed Tuesday. That's the biggest drop in data back to 1957. Compared with April of last year, the core CPI rose 1.4 per cent, the smallest annual gain since 2011.

The distribution per unit (DPU) for EC World Real Estate Investment Trust (EC World Reit) fell by 22.9 per cent on the year to 1.158 Singapore cents for the first quarter ended March 31.

Societe Generale (SocGen) is extending a single exceptional payment as a "goodwill gesture" to investors of the 5x Short Singapore Airlines (SIA) daily leverage certificates (DLCs), after some of them protested against what they saw as the lack of timely disclosure and unfair pricing by the investment bank.

Hong Leong Asia, which holds an 88.16 per cent stake in cement maker Tasek through two subsidiaries, is acquiring all the remaining shares it does not own in the company, in a move worth about RM83.9 million (S$27.4 million).

UMS Holdings on Tuesday recorded a first-quarter rise in net profit of 53 per cent to S$10.7 million, boosted by better performance in its core business of manufacturing high precision front-end semiconductor components.

Source: SGX Masnet, The Business Times, Bloomberg, Channel NewsAsia, Reuters, PSR