CORONAVIRUS | Companies around the world will take on as much as US$1 trillion (RM4.27 trillion) of new debt in 2020, as they try to shore up their finances against the coronavirus, a new study of 900 top firms has estimated.

The unprecedented increase will see total global corporate debt jump by 12 percent to around US$9.3 trillion (RM39.67 trillion), adding to years of accumulation that has left the world's most indebted firms owing as much as many medium-sized countries...