It’s Like Losing Japan, Debt Drama, Fiscal Stimulus: Eco Day

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

• The coronavirus pandemic is set to rob the global economy of more than $5 trillion of growth over the next two years, greater than the annual output of Japan
• Eye-watering household debt levels threaten to exacerbate Australia’s looming recession
• Is it enough? Tracking major economies’ stimulus measures. Meantime, net asset purchases for G-7 central banks were close to $1.4 trillion in March, writes Tom Orlik
• Fed officials already saw a need to get to work on novel programs to cushion the economy when they announced an emergency interest-rate cut on a Sunday evening in mid-March
• It was mid-February when trading of U.S. Treasuries started to go haywire. Soon, alarm bells were ringing at the Fed
• The BOK faces a difficult decision Thursday over whether to take further action now or hold back some of its ammunition for a long-haul fight against the coronavirus and a global recession
• ECB chief Christine Lagarde renewed her plea for a strong fiscal response. Europe’s stalemate over a joint economic response suggests its finance chiefs are still struggling to learn the lessons of the Greek crisis
• The U.S. plans to block Iran’s request for a $5 billion emergency IMF loan to fight coronavirus, the latest signal that the Trump administration isn’t going to ease up despite a growing international outcry. The fund is going into overdrive amid urgent aid requests from a record number of developing countries
• The evidence is mounting that March marked the start of a global recession. According to the WTO that might be the optimistic scenario
• Millennials are getting stung by back-to-back global crises

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