Europe Stimulus, Trump Response, U.K. Borrowing Binge: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) --

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

• Italy, the U.K. and Australia are among the latest governments to add to a fast-rising global tally of government stimulus to counter economic damage from the coronavirus outbreak
• Christine Lagarde will bid to prevent the outbreak from sparking a repeat of the 2008 financial turmoil when the ECB unveils its monetary response today. Europe is starting to show resolve led by its 2008 crisis veterans
• China’s cabinet called for a further reduction in banks’ reserve requirements as the government seeks to ease monetary conditions amid the coronavirus outbreak
• Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte deepened the Italian government’s intervention, ordering all shops to close except for grocery stores and pharmacies. Read this tale of quarantine-to-quarantine in Italy’s virus-hit regions
• President Donald Trump said he’ll significantly restrict travel from Europe to the U.S. for the next month, the administration’s most far-reaching measure yet against coronavirus. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is wants a vote on measures to help workers affected by the outbreak, and the Fed is ramping up cash injections to keep short-term financing markets functioning
• The U.K.’s largest fiscal giveaway in almost three decades will be rooted in a borrowing binge that takes advantage of rock-bottom interest rates
• Serbia followed the lead of U.S. and U.K. central banks with an emergency interest-rate cut to offset the economic consequences of coronavirus. In Ukraine, the central bank may pause after cutting rates at four straight meetings
• Nearly 75% of U.S. companies have experienced supply chain disruptions because of virus-related transportation restrictions
• China’s industrial reboot following its outbreak is running into the global coronavirus economic shock. Meanwhile, the virus is battering small businesses in South Korea, which has one of the world’s highest ratios of self-employed workers

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Jeffrey Black in Hong Kong at jblack25@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net, Michael S. Arnold

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