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Asia Easing Bets, Brexit Deadlock, Australian Splurge: Eco Day

Asia Easing Bets, Brexit Deadlock, Australian Splurge: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) --

Welcome to Tuesday, Asia. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help get your day started:

  • From Australia to South Korea and New Zealand, interest-rate swaps are telegraphing the same message: borrowing costs are set to fall across Asia Pacific. As the region’s export momentum wanes and the Federal Reserve’s dovish turn reverberates across the globe, traders are lining up bets on which central banks will be the first to ease
  • Australia’s government is expected to dish out about A$9 billion ($6.4 billion) in tax cuts and cash handouts in its budget on Tuesday in a bid to win back voters ahead of a likely May election. Even after that splurge, there’s set to be a forecast budget surplus, which would end the longest stretch of deficits since at least 1970
  • New Zealand businesses grew more pessimistic in the first quarter, adding to signs of slowing economic growth and fueling bets that the central bank will cut rates as soon as May
  • India’s government is increasingly looking to the central bank to help boost a flagging economy before an election that kicks off next week. And new Governor Shaktikanta Das is turning out to be a willing partner
  • The U.K.’s deadlocked Parliament failed to agree on a new blueprint for Brexit, rejecting all the options that were put forward to replace Theresa May’s unpopular deal. The House of Commons voted on four different policies but none of them won a majority, pushing Britain’s messy divorce from the European Union deeper into crisis
  • Europe’s position as the weak link in the global economy is becoming more entrenched, with a factory slump intensifying at the same time that Asia shows signs of stabilizing

To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Brockett in Wellington at mbrockett1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Matthew Brockett at mbrockett1@bloomberg.net, Tracy Withers

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