Talking about economies making it out of the squeeze, German business confidence ticked up slightly in April, a key survey showed Monday, even as the third wave of the pandemic continued its assault on Europe’s top economy.

The Ifo institute’s monthly confidence barometer, based on a survey of 9,000 companies, climbed 0.2 points from March to 96.8 points.

“Companies once again raised their assessments of the current business situation,” Ifo president Clemens Fuest said in a statement.

“However, they were no longer quite so optimistic about the coming six months,” he said, with relentlessly high levels of new Covid-19 infections and bottlenecks in supply chains undermining Germany’s economic recovery.

The survey reflected a mixed picture. While manufacturers reported their strongest sentiment in since May 2018, the climate in the service sector fell slightly following a steep rise in the previous month.

“The German economy clearly has many, very different, faces right now,” said Carsten Brzeski of ING Economics.

Nevertheless, he said, “looking beyond possible short-term data distortions, the general outlook for the German economy has clearly improved”.

Germany, the EU’s most populous country, has recorded nearly 3.3 million Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, and more than 81,000 deaths.

Parliament last week passed a “emergency brake” law imposing tough coronavirus restrictions across the country including night curfews and school closures to try to get the outbreak under control.

Gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by five percent in 2020, its worst contraction since the financial crisis of 2009, due to economic fallout from the pandemic.

However, the government is set to lift its forecast of a three-percent rebound this year as industry shows resilience, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said in an interview with the Funke media group published Saturday.

Microfinance Banks (MFBs) in Nigeria have been urged to accelerate investment in digital channels for loan disbursement and collection to mitigate the impact of Pandemic  in the industry.

Following the new trend of different sectors impact of pandemic, a new report by Agusto & Co on COVID-19 and microfinance bank said the pandemic hurt the microfinance industry in Nigeria.

The report noted that despite up to ₦N5 billion spent by the major national and state microfinance banks in Nigeria on the implementation of new technology, mobile and USSD banking services, the industry remains heavily reliant on brick-and-mortar operation for the acquisition of customers and disbursement of loans.

According to the report, many microfinance banks in the country, like in most other developing countries with relatively low penetration of e-channels, witnessed a doubling of obligations during the first wave of the pandemic and lockdown restrictions in early 2020.

What was initially downplayed as a brief hiccup in the supply of semiconductors looks more and more like a shortage that may last throughout the year in what would be a big blow to automakers. Aside the trending impact of pandemic, one may begin to wonder why now? The huge impact in automobiles.

They were planning to rev up production this year to meet an expected surge in demand from consumers as the pandemic wanes and to recover from last year’s losses. But without enough chips those hopes are fading.

The shortage of chips has pushed automakers to idle production lines for brief periods when they temporarily run out of supplies.

Toyota, Volkswagen, Ford, Peugeot, Fiat, Jeep, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover and even the Chinese startup Nio have had to pause production in their factories in the past months.

Automakers have reduced the stocks of parts they keep on hand in recent years as part of cost-cutting measures, so delivery delays can quickly force an entire shutdown.

Renault CEO Luca de Meo told shareholders this past week that “the semiconductor shortage could cause a drop in production volume this year of at least 100,000 vehicles.”

In Germany, thousands of autoworkers were on reduced work hours or temporary unemployment as Volkswagen and Mercedes factories were forced to halt production.

Fiat slowed production at its Brazilian factory in Betim for the second time this month.

The Stellantis factory in Rennes-La Janais in France, where 2,000 people work, was also nearly idle.

– Essential chips  –

Computer processors are a key element in today’s vehicles, which can easily have several dozen to control elements such as the engine, automatic braking system, airbags, automatic parking system and the infotainment system.

The main manufacturers are located in Asia, such as TSMC in Taiwan and Samsung and SK Hynix in South Korea, although there are still some factories in the United States and Europe.

The surge in demand for electronic devices during the pandemic is the main cause of today’s shortage of chips.

A fire in a Japanese factory didn’t help and now a drought in Taiwan may force a reduction in output.

Automakers say they are managing the situation on a day by day basis and are trying to avoid shutting down production lines completely.

Due to the chip shortage, “GM is building some vehicles without certain modules when necessary,” the US carmaker said in a statement.

“They will be completed as soon as more semiconductors become available,” it added.

Stellantis was able to resume production of the new Peugeot 308 at half the normal pace after a three-week halt. It went back to a dashboard console that uses an analogue speedometer.

Most automakers say they hope to make up lost production during the second half of the year.

Current shortages of semiconductor chips that are slowing car production worldwide “can be compensated for by the end of the year”, Daimler CEO Ola Kallenius said in a statement.

Stock markets rose modestly Monday at the start of a busy week featuring Federal Reserve and OPEC meetings and major US corporate earnings.

The dollar was mixed ahead the Fed’s rate decision Wednesday.

Oil prices sank on stubborn fears over demand given the spike in cases in India — a major consumer — and before OPEC and its allies meet on Wednesday as part of their regular review of production.

After a mixed showing in Asia, European stocks pushed higher and US stocks were up in late morning trading.

“Markets remain quiet ahead of Tesla earnings tonight, which mark the shift to reports from a vital part of the market –- the big tech names,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading IG.

A number of big name firms like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google-parent Alphabet, Boeing, Caterpillar, McDonald’s, Mastercard, Chevron, and ExxonMobil are releasing their first quarter results this week, with Tesla leading the way after US markets close on Monday.

Around one-third of the S&P 500 is reporting earnings this week.

In addition to the Fed’s latest policy meeting, this week investors are due to get an initial estimate of first quarter GDP.

“The US economy is in a much better position compared to a few months ago, thanks to government stimulus and the fast pace of Covid vaccinations,” noted ThinkMarkets analyst Fawad Razaqzada.

“So far, the strength of US data has not prevented the Fed from keeping the quantitative easing taps wide open.

“But if the improvement in data persists then it will only be a matter of time before the Fed tapers its emergency stimulus measures.”

US President Joe Biden is also due to make his first address to Congress and may unveil another big spending plan.

In Europe, shares in Lufthansa climbed 3.5 percent and shares in Air France-KLM gained 1.4 percent.

On the other hand, oil prices were hit as India saw five straight days of more than 300,000 new cases in a surge that has overwhelmed hospitals and left severe oxygen and medicine shortages.

A Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East on Monday carrying 36 UK telecommunications and internet satellites, the Roscosmos space agency said.

OneWeb, a London-headquartered company, is working to complete the construction of a constellation of low earth orbit satellites providing enhanced broadband and other services to countries around the world.

The company is competing against billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos in the race to provide fast internet via satellites for the world’s remote areas.

Images released by Russia’s space agency Roscosmos showed the Soyuz rocket taking off against hazy skies Monday morning at 7:14 am local time (2214 GMT).

“All satellites have been successfully placed in target orbits and have been taken under customer control,” Roscosmos said in a statement.

“Mission success!” OneWeb wrote on Twitter.

The UK company plans for its global commercial internet service to be operational by next year, supported by some 650 satellites.

Monday’s launch was the third batch of its satellites placed into orbit from Russia, with earlier launches from the Vostochny cosmodrome of 36 satellites each taking place last month and in December.

OneWeb’s first six satellites were also launched by a Russian-made Soyuz rocket, taking off from the space centre in Kourou in French Guiana in February 2019.

The company launched 68 more from the Baikanour launch site in Kazakhstan last year.

The Vostochny launch site is one of Russia’s most important space projects, designed to reduce reliance on the Baikonur space centre Moscow currently rents from Kazakhstan

The project has been consistently behind schedule, with its construction marred for years by multiple controversies including corruption.

Ethiopia announced Monday it had received two bids for licenses that would end the government’s monopoly over its stunted telecoms sector, one of the last closed markets in the world.

The shake-up of the potentially lucrative sector — currently dominated by state-owned Ethio Telecom — is a cornerstone of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s economic reform agenda.

The bids came from South Africa’s MTN and a consortium including Kenya’s Safaricom, Vodafone and Vodacom, according to a statement from the Ethiopian Communications Authority, the government regulator.

Several other firms that had earlier expressed interest — including France’s Orange and the UAE’s Etisalat — did not submit bids.

But Brook Taye, senior adviser at the finance ministry, told AFP he was “very content” with how the process had played out so far.

“Our aim was always quality over quantity, so we would have loved to have so many other companies to participate but at the end of the day all of them have their own reasons,” he said.

Some companies might have been put off by a central bank directive preventing foreign-owned firms from providing mobile financial services, while others might have chafed at restrictions on developing independent infrastructure, Brook said.

Ethiopia also has a reputation for extended internet shutdowns during periods of social unrest and more innocuous events like national exams.

While Abiy’s government has said it will award two telecoms licenses, Brook said there was no guarantee the bids received Monday would be successful.

Officials will now begin reviewing the technical and financial specifics of the bids, and Brook predicted a final decision would be announced within two weeks.

The licenses are expected to bring an infusion of cash, jobs and infrastructure investment.

Ethiopia’s telecoms reforms also include a plan to sell a stake in Ethio Telecom, a move they hope will make the firm more efficient.

“Hopefully in about a year, no more dropped calls in the middle of an important conversation, or messages from your telecom operator saying… the person you called is not in the coverage area and whatnot,” Brook said.