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A 4-Day Week, Xi-Trump Delay, RBA Cheers Spending Spree: Eco Day

A 4-Day Week, Xi-Trump Delay, RBA Cheers Spending Spree: Eco Day

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

  • Americans have been known to innovate on hamburgers. Maybe it’s no surprise, then, that Shake Shack Inc. is getting creative by experimenting with a four-day work week as part of efforts to attract and retain scarce workers. Filings for U.S. unemployment benefits rose to a four-week high, a sign the labor market may be softening somewhat even as it remains strong overall
  • A meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping to sign an agreement to end their trade war won’t occur this month and is more likely to happen in April at the earliest
  • Australia’s economy is set for a fiscal injection as a government trailing in opinion polls ahead of a May election tries to buy its way back into contention. The RBA, surprisingly, is cheering them on
  • Similarly in Europe, the ECB’s latest round of stimulus is being accompanied by renewed calls on governments to step up their game in nurturing the economy. The Bank of France trimmed its 2019 growth forecast slightly and voiced confidence that the country will pull through the broader weakness in the euro area
  • The Bank of Japan is likely to underscore the cautious tilt of global central banks by downgrading some of its economic assessments
  • If Theresa May pulls off a near miracle and gets her deal through parliament before the exit day deadline, Dan Hanson reckons the economy might rebound and prompt the BOE to raise rates this year
  • Canadian home values fell last year for the first time in three decades amid falling prices in some of the country’s priciest markets
  • India will continue to implement economic reforms irrespective of who wins an election next month, a key government adviser said
  • Argentina’s central bank will shrink its monetary base by an extra 10 percent before the end of the year to slow inflation. The measures announced point in the right direction, says Adriana Dupita, but it is hard to tell whether they will be sufficient to bring inflation down
  • Fed, BOE decide on rates, Brexit summit: A look at the week ahead

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Heath in Sydney at mheath1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, Henry Hoenig

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