Fed Inflation-Link, U.S.’s Bailout List, Dire Thailand: Eco Day

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

• Jerome Powell isn’t “even thinking about thinking about” raising interest rates, but investors still wonder what it would take for the Fed chair to take his foot off the gas. It seems to be inflation
• Big-name law firms, religious organizations and companies connected to President Donald Trump and other politicians were among the thousands of loan recipients that took part in the federal government’s largest coronavirus relief program
• Thailand has been cited as a success story in containing the coronavirus, having gone more than 40 days without any local transmission. Yet its economic outlook is the darkest in Asia
• China warned the U.K. it will face “consequences” if it chooses to be a “hostile partner” after it emerged Prime Minister Boris Johnson is preparing to phase out Huawei in Britain’s 5G networks. The move reaffirmed the U.K.’s collision course with Beijing and Moscow as it seeks to establish its place in the world after Brexit
• The Bank of Israel said it plans to purchase corporate debt for the first time as a new surge in Covid-19 cases stalks the economy
• Indonesia’s central bank agreed to buy billions of dollars of sovereign bonds directly from the government to help it finance the fiscal response to the coronavirus pandemic
• Malaysia is set to cut its benchmark interest rate to its lowest level on record as it seeks to support the reopening economy amid soaring unemployment and the threat of recession
• Europe is leading and the U.S. is lagging, Bjorn van Roye finds in a survey of alternative indicators
• New Zealand’s government will limit the number of citizens flying home to reduce pressure on its overflowing quarantine facilities
• In Indonesia, locals can soon fly from Jakarta to the beaches of Bali for a domestic vacation. Tokyo residents can escape the pandemic stress with a hike up Mount Fuji, and New Yorkers can head to the Hamptons on Long Island. Residents of Singapore, a city-state smaller than New York City, have few such options
• India’s coronavirus epidemic became the third biggest in the world as infections surged after the nation eased containment measures to reverse an economic collapse that has left millions destitute

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