Amazon says India business worst hit

Amazon on Thursday said its India business had been the worst hit among its international operations.

Talking to investors on the Q12020 earnings call, chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky said, “The biggest impact internationally has been in India.” He said the constraints of operating during the lockdown period, during which e-commerce players have been permitted to sell only essential items, had meant cutting back on merchandise.” We will expand when the Indian government announces that we are allowed to resume operations.

So we are in bit of a holding pattern except for grocery in India,” Olsavsky said.

Losses for Amazon’s international operations soared to $398 million in Q12020 from $90 million in the year-ago period with operating expenses shooting up to $19.50 billion.  The global e-retailer’s net income for the quarter declined to $2.5 billion from $3.6 billion in Q1 2019.