Trump Deal Looms, China's 11 Crucial Days, U.S. Growth: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Happy Friday, Asia. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help get your day started:

• U.S. officials are preparing a final trade deal that Donald Trump and Xi Jinping could sign in weeks, as Chinese retaliation against tariffs costs U.S. firms about $40 billion a year in lost exports. Meantime, there’s a risk that negotiations shut out the rest of the world
• A crucial 11 days for China’s economy begins next week when leaders gather to detail priorities for the year; China’s mounting pile of distressed debt has elevated market players’ attention to one of its less obvious economic data points
• The U.S. economy was steadier than thought at the end of last year, but it’s probably too soon to give it a clean bill of health for 2019. Carl Riccadonna concurs: while the economy appears to have dodged a bullet, the coast isn’t clear
• Vice Chairman Richard Clarida said the Fed can be patient with interest-rate rises given muted inflation; here’s a summary of recent remarks by Fed policy makers
• Australia’s property slump deepened in February, as stricter lending standards dry up the flow of credit to investors and home-buyers
• The ECB needs to cut its economic forecasts to bring them in line with reality -- and that will inevitably result in adjustments to policy guidance, argues Jamie Murray. The race to succeed Mario Draghi as ECB president looks increasingly like a Franco-Finnish affair
• Brexit continues to take a toll , with new figures showing a fall in U.K. business confidence and continued property market weakness
• India’s economy slowed considerably with little sign of a quick recovery, as political tensions with Pakistan emerged as a new risk to join global headwinds and tighter domestic financial conditions
• Argentina is moving in the right direction on several measures closely watched by investors, but labor market data that’s key for citizens reflect a different -- and more depressing -- reality
• Indonesia’s maverick finance minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, reckons her country could do a lot worse than follow South Korea’s example of exporting rat-skin products in the 1970s
• Most Venezuelans showed up to work in quiet defiance of President Nicolas Maduro’s abrupt order that carnival holidays begin Thursday instead of next week

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.