Dovish Powell, China Trade Bazaar, Korea Turns Untact: Eco Day

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

• Fed chief Jerome Powell said they will keep pumping stimulus into the economy until the labor market has healed. Yelena Shulyatyeva noted that the Fed estimates it will take nearly three years for the economy to return to pre-virus levels
• Canton Fair, the world’s largest trade meeting, is going online. The twice-annual event usually sees more than 200,000 foreign buyers cram into its exhibition halls
• South Korea is making a push to reshape its economy around a concept called “untact,” envisioning a future where people interact online and companies replace humans with machines
• Texas on Wednesday reported 2,504 new coronavirus cases, the highest one-day total since the pandemic emerged
• The coronavirus pandemic is splintering the world economy, and policy makers can’t risk a premature withdrawal of lifelines to businesses and the most vulnerable people, the OECD warned
• Fears of China’s local government debt have haunted global investors ever since 2008’s 4 trillion yuan stimulus. David Qu says these concerns are overstated
• When European economies start to recover from the coronavirus, more jobs may be filled by robots. Meantime, ECB policy makers tiptoed into a debate over whether they’ll need to boost stimulus
• It took Sarah Sissons less than a month to call an end to 25 years in Dubai. It’s a choice facing millions of foreigners across the Gulf amid the fallout from the pandemic and a plunge in energy prices
• For the first time since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept to power six years ago, signs are emerging that his seemingly unshakable hold over legions of migrant workers may be slipping

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