Results for Business

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) increased its response to the novel coronavirus disease pandemic by $13.5 billion, increasing its response package from $6.5 billion to $20 billion on Monday, 13 April.

Tonga’s commercial banks will close tomorrow, April 9, due to severe Tropical Cyclone Harold, which is expected to close in on Tonga tonight. Meanwhile, the economic downturn is becoming more acute for Tonga due to CoViD-19, states a bank manager.

The United Nations is calling for a $2.5 Trillion support package for developing countries to deal with the coronavirus shock. UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said the economic fallout from the shock is ongoing and increasingly difficult to predict but there are clear indications that things will get much worse for developing economies before they get better.

Traditional Tongan skincare treatments using extracts from plants, such as tuitui and feta‘u oils, cinnamon, tevunga leaf, touhuni, pipi, and coconut oil, are the inspiration for a new range of botanical skincare products, launched by a local company this month.

Many of Tonga's businesses are already facing a cash crunch and looking to scale back their operations, as the impact of the CoViD-19 pandemic bites, the Tonga Chamber of Commerce and Industries (TCCI) stated today. While the National Reserve Bank of Tonga has reassured Tongans that our banking system is strong enough to withstand the impact of CoViD-19, but economic growth will be lower for the year.

The price of petrol, kerosene and diesel has fallen while the LPG price increased, starting on March 16.

Mr Semisi Panuve has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer for Tonga Cable Limited (TCL) effective from 2 March.

A total powerstation blackout on Tongatapu for a few hours this morning, was caused by a temporary cooling system failure on the generators.

Tonga’s official Foreign Reserves had risen slightly by $0.2m to $489.5m (equivalent to 7.8 months of imports cover), while annually, Foreign Reserves increased by $20.90m due to higher receipts of budget support, grants, and project funds from development partners, the Reserve Bank of Tonga stated on 21 January.