IMF Slashes Outlook, Brexit Deal, China Wants Rollback: 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 made a fifth-straight cut to its 2019 global growth forecast, citing a broad deceleration across the world’s largest economies as trade tensions undermine the expansion -- here’s where we agree, and differ
• Beijing wants a rollback in tariffs in its trade war with the U.S. before China can feasibly agree to buy as much as $50 billion of American agriculture products that President Donald Trump claims are part of an initial deal, people familiar with the matter say
• U.K. and European Union officials edged closer to a last-minute Brexit deal -- but it risks being jeopardized by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Northern Irish allies
• New Zealand inflation slowed in the third quarter, adding to signs of benign price pressures that may prompt the central bank to cut interest rates again as soon as next month
• South Koreans are inflicting pain on Japan’s tourist industry, staying away amid a long-running feud between the two countries that’s spread from historical grievances to trade, investment and even military ties
• Traders are more concerned about this month’s Federal Reserve decision than ongoing U.S.-China trade negotiations if yuan options are anything to go by
• For 25 consecutive years, Hong Kong has remained the world’s freest economy, thanks partly to low taxes and the rule of law. But widening inequality has also fueled the worst unrest the city has seen since the former British colony returned to China in 1997

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Bourke in Sydney at cbourke4@bloomberg.net

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

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