Neutral Powell, Closed Australia, G7’s $2.5 Trillion QE: Eco Day

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

• Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell sought to maintain neutrality in the debate over whether Congress should build on record stimulus. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump announced rules for a $19 billion coronavirus farm aid package
• Australia’s success in curbing infections is allowing it to slowly ease restrictions even as it remains largely closed off from the rest of the world, taking its economy back to the pre-globalization era
• Central banks have taken extreme steps to support growth and financial stability. Across the Group of Seven, net purchases so far add up to $2.5 trillion, and there’s more to come, writes Tom Orlik
• China’s National People’s Congress -- scheduled to begin Friday -- is likely to signal stronger fiscal support for growth but forgo setting a numerical growth target, writes Chang Shu
• The Bank of Thailand is set to push its benchmark interest rate even closer to the lower bound as it tries to rescue an economy that just posted its worst quarterly contraction in more than eight years
• U.S. home construction starts plunged in April by the most in records back to 1959, as the nationwide lockdown hammered the housing market and broader economy
• The U.K. is headed into a recession unprecedented in scale, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak warned as he laid bare the extent of the economic cost of the coronavirus
• A new crop of jobs are emerging to keep the post-Covid economy running. Companies racing to get back to work are creating roles to keep employees and customers safe from the virus
• The U.S. Labor Department said Tuesday it will permanently end giving news media early looks at market-moving economic data, after suspending the pre-briefings during the coronavirus pandemic
• The Pearl River Delta industrial belt has served as one of China’s most important growth engines. But, now the situation is getting dire in some labor-intensive sectors. Thousands of migrant workers have already headed back to China’s poorer interior

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