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Manufacturing Hit, Senate Clears Stimulus, ECB Bond Buy: Eco Day

Manufacturing Hit, Senate Clears Stimulus, ECB Bond Buy: Eco Day

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

  • Coronavirus’s economic impact is shifting from service-driven industries to the manufacturing sector on both sides of the Atlantic, leading to a synchronized shutdown of heavy industry not seen since the 1940s
  • The U.S. Senate cleared a virus relief bill that pegs the cost of the economic rescue package at $1.3 trillion. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the administration may consider asking for equity stakes in corporations that want coronavirus aid from taxpayers
  • The European Central Bank launched an extra emergency bond-buying program worth 750 billion euros ($817 billion). Now it’s up to national governments to pass substantially larger fiscal stimulus, Jamie Rush writes. Among EU countries, the bloc’s eastern members have most room for stimulus
  • Governments are finally getting the message that they’ll have to run exponentially bigger budget deficits to keep their economies afloat. Many investors believe the stimulus packages being enacted aren’t enough to offset the virus’s blow
  • Poland’s central bank will launch an open-ended bond-buying program to prevent government borrowing costs from spiraling out of control
  • China is accelerating infrastructure spending and has lowered taxes to fight the coronavirus slump, but it comes nowhere close to the stimulus unleashed during the financial crisis. China also is showering Europe with virus aid to strengthen its international leadership role
  • Italy’s electricity consumption dropped in the past week, a first sign of the deep economic impact of the national lockdown imposed to halt coronavirus
  • The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits is poised for a historic surge. Globally, 25 million job losses could be recorded
  • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled a 100 billion-lira ($15.4 billion) plan to help businesses ride out the coronavirus storm. In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced plans for a fiscal package worth 3% of GDP as it grapples with the pandemic
  • Bloomberg’s Stephanie Flanders shares her five lessons for policy makers beginning to grasp the scale of the fiscal support that this crisis is going to require

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