Powell Fiscal Call, EU Counters China, G-7 on Hong Kong: Eco Day

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

• Fed chief Jerome Powell urged Congress not to pull back too quickly on relief for households and small businesses amid increasing debate over whether to extend temporary programs
• The EU suggested a raft of measures to protect its industries from the potential threat of takeovers by companies bankrolled by China and other foreign powers
• G-7 foreign ministers urged China to reconsider its plan to impose a new national-security law on Hong Kong. Mao’s ‘magic weapon’ is casting a dark spell over the city, Businessweek reports
• President Xi Jinping faces fresh test for China’s response to the pandemic: a rapidly growing outbreak in Beijing. Here’s why the world is worrying about a second wave of Covid-19
• Taiwan may have avoided going into lockdown, but the central bank is likely to cut its benchmark rate again this year as shrinking consumption and Asia’s strongest currency weigh on the economy
• Over in Indonesia, the central bank is expected to resume lowering interest rates after a two-month pause
• The Philippines is weighing a bevy of new taxes to fund anti-virus economic stimulus -- with the risk that these levies could slow activity even further
• Here’s a wrap of Bloomberg Economics’ insights to everything from the U.S. growth outlook to China’s worries about spillovers
• The U.S. has spent more than half of $3 trillion in economic rescue funds passed by Congress -- with little of the oversight intended to ensure the money goes to the right places
• The Swiss National Bank looks like an oasis of calm compared with other central banks, but it’s been waging a battle with investors
• Brazil cut its interest rate by 75 basis points to a record low as the pandemic hollows out inflation expectations. Economy Minister Paulo Guedes warned Brazil could fall into a depression if policy makers fail to resume a pro-market reform drive
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed India will defend its sovereignty in his first public statement since clashes along its contested border with China resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers
• Former National Security Advisor John Bolton writes in a new book that President Donald Trump asked Xi Jinping to help him win re-election by buying more U.S. farm products

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