IMF Cuts Outlook, U.S.-China Talks, PBOC's Yi on Rates: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Welcome to Wednesday, Asia. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help get your day started:

• The International Monetary Fund further reduced its global growth outlook and suggested policy “missteps” on trade and Brexit could derail a projected rebound
• U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and senior officials are set to travel to China Monday for the first high-level negotiations since talks broke down in May. The U.S. has sanctioned a Chinese state oil trader for violating restrictions on Iranian crude, an attempt to tighten restrictions and cut off one of Iran’s biggest buyers
• China’s central bank chief said rates are currently at an appropriate level and he will make decisions based on domestic considerations
• UBS’s CEO is sounding the alarm on fresh monetary easing just as European policy makers appear poised to deliver another helping to stimulus-hungry markets. Switzerland’s experiment with negative rates is beginning to take hold in the mortgage market, with some local lenders saying they’re effectively paying people to borrow money
• Boris Johnson’s apparent willingness to exit the EU by Oct. 31 without a deal is a key reason investors are pricing in looser policy; indeed Bloomberg Economics’ Dan Hanson’s estimates suggest financial markets expect a restart of bond purchases
• Struggling to hit inflation targets, central banks around the world are debating whether they need to alter what they’re aiming for
• President Donald Trump’s populist assault on globalization has provoked fears of the death — or the slowing — of the economic force. Yet those fears ignore what globalization really is, and how it is evolving, write Shawn Donnan and Lauren Leatherby
• Baeck Ha-na works in accounting during the week. On weekends, she’s a YouTube star in South Korea, promoting the “live-alone life”

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Heath in Sydney at mheath1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, Jiyeun Lee

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