Central Banks' New Normal, ECB Debate, China New Plans: Eco Day

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

• U.S. and European central banks are reconciling themselves to a new normal of historically low interest rates and bloated balance sheets
• The ECB delivered a fresh round of monetary stimulus to shore up the weakening economy. Jamie Murray says the measures fail to offer a material injection of fresh stimulus. Some policy makers consider the downgraded 2019 growth forecast still too optimistic
• China’s annual leaders gathering in Beijing unleashed a flurry of policy initiatives, key among them a shift that puts fiscal policy decisively at the forefront of stimulus. In the nation’s manufacturing heartland, firms are struggling to retain workers who succumb to the lure of easier, better paid jobs in the booming services industry
• On International Women’s Day, here’s what India’s top female economists are predicting for 2019
• The U.S. jobs report will signal whether the labor market is defying the slowdown that pervaded much of the economic data at the end of last year, says Carl Riccadonna. Job watchers should also brace for a revision given the low survey response rate in January
• U.S. tariffs on car imports would deal a blow to the global economy and Europe will retaliate if they’re imposed, European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said
• Down Under, the withdrawal of Chinese investors is exacerbating a property downturn

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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