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Post-Brexit Deal, Israel on Hold, Modest 2020 Growth: Eco Day

Post-Brexit Deal, Israel on Hold, Modest 2020 Growth: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) --

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

  • Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen set out rival red lines for their visions of a post-Brexit deal. That set the scene for a fraught year of negotiations after nearly three years of bad-tempered talks on the U.K.’s withdrawal from the EU
  • European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde used her first public remarks of 2020 to push for greater coordination between the region’s policy makers, arguing that a joint fiscal push would help jump-start the sluggish economy
  • Governor Amir Yaron’s vision for Israel’s monetary policy centered on measured increases in interest rates and his preference for allowing markets to determine the exchange rate without significant intervention. But talk of easing -- and even negative rates -- has by now supplanted the prospect of higher borrowing costs at a time of unprecedented political paralysis
  • Serbia will probably refrain from cutting interest rates for a second month after economic growth accelerated past the president’s forecast ahead of this year’s elections
  • Global economic growth is likely to pick up slowly this year and next, though the recovery will be more modest than previously estimated despite the easing of trade tensions, according to the World Bank
  • Sweden’s Riksbank is running into criticism from economists for not doing enough to explain last month’s historical decision to end five years of negative interest rates
  • Hong Kong’s government is preparing to spend “boldly” to shore up the finance hub’s tumbling economy, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said in an interview
  • China’s consumer inflation steadied in December while factory price declines moderated, leaving room for monetary easing to cement a recent stabilization in economic growth
  • U.S. companies in December added the most jobs in eight months, suggesting the labor market entered 2020 with momentum

To contact the reporter on this story: Jiyeun Lee in Hong Kong at jlee1029@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Jackson at pjackson53@bloomberg.net, Karthikeyan Sundaram, Devidutta Tripathy

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