ECB Negative Rates, EU’s Man on Trade, French Strike: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) --

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

• Five weeks since Mario Draghi retired from running the European Central Bank, finding an outright fan of his legacy of negative interest rates has become a lot harder
• Everything you need to know about Phil Hogan -- the man Europe picked to confront the U.S. on trade
• In what has been the undoing of previous French governments, unions representing everyone from transport workers to lawyers, doctors, teachers and students are going on an indefinite strike, starting Thursday
  • France’s economic prospects rest on working smarter, not longer, Maeva Cousin writes
• The U.S. and China are moving closer to agreeing on the amount of tariffs that would be rolled back in a phase-one trade deal despite tensions over Hong Kong and Xinjiang
• House Democrats said that a deal on the stalled U.S.-Mexico-Canada free-trade agreement is within reach and urged Mexico to accept a compromise on labor-rights enforcement
• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a stimulus package to support growth after an export slump, natural disasters and a tax hike hit growth
• India’s central bank unexpectedly kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged as headline inflation breached its medium-term target for the first time in more than a year
• Divergent views on the Hong Kong protests are fueling workplace tension among the city’s financial workforce, amid an increasingly difficult business environment

To contact the reporter on this story: James Mayger in Beijing at jmayger@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net, Zoe Schneeweiss

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.