Hong Kong Siege, Powell Meets Trump, Delhi’s Dirty Air: Eco Day

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

• A two-day university siege has transfixed Hong Kong, raising fears of a bloody crackdown on hundreds of protesters who remain trapped in a campus surrounded by police. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged President Donald Trump to speak out on behalf of the protesters
• Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell met with President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Monday to discuss the economy, marking a second face-to-face sit-down this year amid relentless White House criticism of the central bank
• Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren warned his fellow monetary policy makers against putting financial stability at risk in pursuit of higher inflation
• Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s has been the key player in efforts to revive the world’s third-largest economy. But rising concern about the damaging side effects of ultra-low interest rates means fiscal policy could take a more prominent role in the next economic downturn
• China isn’t likely to use U.S. Treasury sales as a short-term weapon in the current trade war, but by adding to downward pressure on the current-account surplus the trade war will push China to accelerate the long-term search for other sources of foreign earnings, writes Bloomberg Economics’ Chang Shu
• Taiwan sees the opportunity to revitalize its economy as a center for advanced manufacturing, reversing decades of investment and know-how outflows across the Taiwan Strait, as the trade war forces technology suppliers to rethink their reliance on China
• Flight disruptions, fewer tourists, lost work hours and missed school days have come to portray India’s struggles with toxic air quality in its capital city, and the intangible costs may be adding up for an economy grappling with a sharp slowdown
• Fire tornadoes are set to become a more common feature of the Australian landscape as climate change takes hold later this century

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Clenfield in Tokyo at jclenfield@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Malcolm Scott at mscott23@bloomberg.net, Jason Clenfield

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