ECB Uncertainty, No Spending Boom, Xi at Climate Summit: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) --

Welcome to Wednesday, Europe. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the day:

• Investors trying to predict the European Central Bank’s stimulus plans are about to run into deeper uncertainty even as the clouds around the pandemic start to lift
• Europeans are unlikely to go back to pre-crisis levels of spending, the European Commission said. The European Union plans to overhaul its economy with laws to enact stricter climate goals
• U.K. households took on more debt and suffered a bigger hit to incomes during the pandemic than those in France and Germany
• Chinese leader Xi Jinping will participate in a climate summit organized by U.S. President Joe Biden, a sign that climate issues are one area the two countries can cooperate on amid frosty ties
• Chinese traffic and factory activity is not only back to normal, it’s surpassing pre-virus levels, underpinning the global oil demand recovery
• China is making incremental progress in meeting the targets set under the phase-one trade deal with the U.S., but a surge in exports to the world’s largest economy shows the trade imbalance between the two nations is worsening
• South Korea and Australia are proving the odd couple of the global economy, managing to mitigate the impact of the Covid crisis due to deep links with China’ and key advantages unique to themselves
• The Bank of Canada is poised to pare back its asset purchases amid a stronger-than-expected economic recovery
• Bloomberg Economics looks at the impact of rising yields on the fair value of currencies
• The Bank of Japan will tweak some of its quarterly forecasts and leave its main stimulus settings unchanged next week as it assesses the impact of its recent policy review, according to a Bloomberg survey

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