Fed Renews Pledge, Bonanza Buffer, Yield Control Review: Eco Day

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

• The Fed left interest rates near zero and vowed to use all its tools to support the recovery from an economic downturn that Chair Jerome Powell called the most severe “in our lifetime”
• Australia is lowballing the price estimate of its largest export -- a key ingredient in China’s stimulus -- setting up a buffer for the economy and the government’s books as the Covid-19 crisis clouds the broader outlook
• Conditions for successfully implementing yield curve control are less favorable in the U.S., euro area and U.K. than they are in Japan, writes Björn van Roye
• Food insecurity for U.S. households reached its highest reported level since data tracking began in May, with almost 30 million Americans reporting that they’d not had enough to eat
• The U.K. and Japan are close to agreeing a post-Brexit trade accord, a deal that would replace the free-trade agreement Britain enjoys through its membership of the EU
• Hong Kong’s economy contracted for the fourth straight quarter as the pandemic and political tensions extend the city’s recession
• Two ECB policy makers set a high bar for a potential exit from the institution’s pandemic bond-buying program
• Fiscal, education and health-care policies can do more than monetary policy to combat the higher unemployment rates experienced by Black Americans, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said. Meantime, a former senior Fed economist levied a broad critique of her profession, saying racism, sexism and elitism have led to bad policy advice
• Thailand picked Sethaput Suthiwart-Narueput, a member of the Bank of Thailand’s Monetary Policy Committee, as central bank governor to help guide the economy through its worst crisis ever
• Australia’s real interest rate has risen as deflation emerges in the economy and, coupled with a currency on a tear, could pose a challenge for a central bank otherwise content with its policy mix
• Vietnam beat back its first wave of coronavirus infections by embracing U.S.-supported pandemic strategies that the Trump administration largely ignored

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.