China Stimulus Shot, Fed Crisis Tools, German Recession: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) --

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

• China’s Politburo meeting suggests it’s shifting the policy focus from virus control to economic support, writes David Qu. The body urged the nation to meet its economic targets even amid the pressure from the coronavirus
• The Fed will be forced to use large-scale asset purchases “aggressively” in a downturn, Chairman Jerome Powell told lawmakers. Republican and Democratic senators urged Powell to defend the independence of the central bank, a bipartisan show of support after President Donald Trump renewed his public assault
• Germany’s biggest bank has given the strongest warning yet that the nation is close to a recession as the coronavirus outbreak exacerbates its long-running industrial slump
• Economists are turning more pessimistic over the chances of a speedy recovery for China’s virus-hit economy, as evidence mounts that the disruption will be deeper and more long-lasting
• Qian Wan maps the provincial debt risk in China from the virus
• A deep slump in euro-area industrial output highlights the challenges of the sector. Brendan Murray notes in Terms of Trade that Europe’s industrial engines were supposed to be turning the corner
• Riksbank chief Stefan Ingves all but ruled out extreme negative rates should a major economic downturn hit, pointing instead to asset purchases as a better crisis-fighting tool
• The U.S. is weighing a plan to increase its long-standing ceiling on tariffs in a move meant to trigger a renegotiation with fellow WTO members and step up its assault on the global trading system. Here’s a map of trade partners in the firing line
• India’s inflation may have peaked and will probably ease in coming months, allowing the central bank room to resume rate reductions
• Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez will meet Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro in March for the first time, in a sign both governments are working to overcome recent bad blood
• Italy isn’t just in an economic slump, its population is also sagging, pushing it into the biggest demographic crisis in more than a century

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

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Jackson at pjackson53@bloomberg.net, Alexandra Veroude

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