Germany’s Cracking Defense, Trade Toll, ECB Action: Eco Day

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

• Two months after Germany’s economy minister vowed to do everything so “no job” would be lost to the pandemic, unemployment has already risen more than during the 2008/2009 financial crisis.
• Global trade took its biggest hit in more than a decade in March, when the spread of the coronavirus began to take an increasingly heavy toll on businesses
• One of the ECB’s key policy makers signaled that the institution is very likely to boost its emergency bond-buying program
• Rich Chinese investors are finding luxury real estate is a good hiding place from the economic fallout of the coronavirus
• After stabilizing one of Europe’s biggest virus-triggered currency selloffs, Hungary’s central bank will pause to assess the complex web of instruments it put in place to confront the economic crisis.
• China’s top legislature said it plans to revise the law governing the People’s Bank of China this year, amid a broadening of the central bank’s role in recent years
• As governments roll out subsidies to counter recessions, there’s a risk they’re sowing the seeds of future tariff fights and economic headwinds
• Incoming Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem will face a combination of rising prices and stagnant growth as the economy struggles to recover from the coronavirus pandemic
• A 0.0000148% yield drew strong demand for a bond offering in Japan, as investors clamor for safe debt amid the pandemic even if it pays them next to nothing

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.