ECB Stimulus Debate, Global Debt Boom, China’s FDI Gain: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) --

Happy Friday, Europe. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help get your day started and send you into the weekend:

• The European Central Bank awkwardly has to hope for a rise in German unemployment to convince the relatively penny-pinching economy to unveil a major fiscal stimulus boost
• Pause ahead. Meanwhile, a pair of ECB officials hinted that any further stimulus would be on hold as the policy makers mull the bigger-picture strategy
• Sweden’s central bank has lambasted the country’s statistics agency after it emerged that months of jobless data were riddled with errors, potentially hampering policy decisions
• Piling IOUs. Global debt has surged past $250 trillion, the Institute of International Finance calculated, with the U.S. and China leading the way
• Can’t resist. Looking past tweets from President Donald Trump, foreign firms have ramped up investment in China to expand operations in the world’s second-biggest economy
• Signs of strength. There’s no reason to think that recession probability “is at all elevated,” Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell told Congress of the U.S. economy
• Charging growth. Drawing lessons from Alan Greenspan, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz argued for the powerful impact technology can have on potential growth
• Recession watch. For Hong Kong, the downturn already is real, with Bloomberg Economics tracking key gauges showing the economic strain amid increasingly violent protests
• Film meets reality. A new Korean comedy-thriller that speaks to resentment over income inequality is making waves in the U.S. and worldwide

To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Jamrisko in Singapore at mjamrisko@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, Jiyeun Lee

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