British Mortgages, World’s Banker, European Emissions: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Welcome to Wednesday, Europe. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the day:

• British mortgage providers spent the last two years cutting margins and taking on riskier buyers. With the coronavirus pandemic now hanging over house prices, they’re about to find out if their customers are as solid as they thought
• The coronavirus is guaranteed to throw the world into recession, but economists are becoming less convinced about the potential for a strong snapback in growth. On the bright side, Europe’s carbon emissions will fall steeply amid measures to stop coronavirus
• The Fed is acting as central banker to the world by seeking to provide the global financial system with the dollar liquidity it needs to avoid seizing up
• The BOE should take the step of buying bonds directly from the government, according to a former deputy governor
• G-20 economy chiefs are switching focus to the need to help developing nations confront the impact of coronavirus
• President Donald Trump approved a proposal to delay payment of certain tariffs by three months, and called on Congress to provide $2 trillion for U.S. infrastructure. Meanwhile, most Americans seem to be taking the recent market swings in stride
• Plans for a future after oil in Saudi Arabia are increasingly at the mercy of the present. Oil itself is entering a period of unparalleled demand destruction that promises to transform the industry. Trump says the U.S. will meet with Saudi Arabia and Russia to staunch the plunge in oil prices
• Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has a record stimulus plan to help Japanese households and businesses survive the coronavirus pandemic. History suggests there will be more to come
• Latin America is poised for months of heightened inflation uncertainty as coronavirus forces governments to overhaul data-gathering methods
• Turkey’s central bank introduced new measures to ease lenders’ access to credit and support liquidity in the government bond market

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