IMF Downgrades, Pandemic Tightens Grip, U.S. Tariffs: Eco Day

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

• The International Monetary Fund downgraded its outlook for the coronavirus-ravaged world economy, projecting a significantly deeper recession and slower recovery than it anticipated just two months ago
• The Covid-19 pandemic is now predicted to kill 180,000 Americans by October, adding to dire signs that prompted a stock-market selloff and drastic measures from government leaders
• The U.S. is weighing new tariffs on $3.1 billion of exports from France, Germany, Spain and the U.K., adding to an arsenal the Trump administration is threatening to use against Europe
• Recurring coronavirus outbreaks will probably hold back U.S. economic growth and leave unemployment at elevated levels in the coming years, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to make India more self-reliant, but if the experience over the past few years is anything to go by, it’s not going to be easy
• Fitch Ratings stripped Canada of its AAA status amid a spike in emergency spending for Covid-19, making it the first top-rated country to be downgraded by the ratings agency during the pandemic
• U.S. health and agricultural authorities issued thinly veiled criticism of new demands from China that food exporters sign documents stating that they comply with safety standards to prevent transmission of Covid-19
• Egypt’s central bank will probably preserve one of the world’s highest real interest rates when it meets on Thursday, which has drawn investors back to the nation’s assets
• Global central banks have developed a “concrete toolbox” to better prepare for the risks climate change. A group of central banks known as the Network for Greening the Financial System says its new reference scenarios will help them navigate the implications of global warming

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