Growth ‘V’? Yes, Record China Debt, Japan to Crater: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Welcome to Friday, Asia. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help take you through to the weekend.

• Bloomberg Economics’ GDP tracker suggests global growth picked up further in July. Most economies appear to have banked the easy gains from the relaxation of containment measures, says Dan Hanson
• China’s retail investors are embracing the euphoria of the biggest bull run since 2015. It’s a dangerous strategy both for already overextended households as well as lenders
• Japan’s pandemic-hit economy shrank last quarter by the most in records going back to 1955, official data is set to show, with a resurgence of the virus threatening to slow a fragile recovery
• Flare-ups from Australia to Japan show the world hasn’t learned an early lesson from the coronavirus crisis: to stop the spread, those with mild or symptom-free coronavirus infections must be forced to isolate, both from their communities and family
• New Zealand’s push toward negative rates is flattening the yield curve of its rapidly expanding NZ$79 billion sovereign bond market
• India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman can expect another payout from the central bank in coming weeks, but it’s unlikely to plug a huge government revenue hole created by the pandemic
• Europe’s east can find some consolation despite the unprecedented economic damage wrought by Covid-19
• The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell below 1 million for the first time since the pandemic began in March
• Europe’s initial reaction to the U.S.’s latest tariff move in the Airbus dispute is disappointment and relief it wasn’t much worse
• U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government faces a dilemma, and how it responds could set the tone of the economy for years
• The Fed is conducting experiments with a hypothetical digital dollar for research purposes, though it hasn’t yet committed to issuance that would require a formal policy process involving the government and other stakeholders, Governor Lael Brainard said Thursday
• On the northeastern fringe of Chongqing, the rising district of Yuelai is designed as a “sponge city.” China’s cities flood partly because most of the water-retaining land that used to absorb rainfall has been paved over, forcing rain to flow directly into poorly built or outdated sewage and drainage systems

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.