Powell's Clues, Year of the Dove, Shifting BOE Outlook: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Good morning Americas. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help round off your week:

• The secret behind Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s surprise U-turn on monetary policy can possibly be found in comments he made in New York a year and a half ago.
• The Fed’s dovish turn is being followed worldwide as policy makers across the globe take a breather from raising interest rates amid slowing inflation and economic growth.
• That trend was particularity visible in the U.K. yesterday, where the Bank of England’s pessimistic view of the economy has left analysts scrambling to rewrite their expectations for future action.
  • Russia’s central bank kept the key rate unchanged following a hike in December as a rally in the ruble and weak consumer demand tempered a spike in inflation.
• The U.S.-European trade truce struck last summer that’s helped keep punitive tariffs at bay is at risk of unraveling, with America’s top diplomat to the European Union citing a lack of good will and progress in negotiations.
  • Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said he won’t meet Chinese President Xi Jinping before a March 1 deadline to avert new U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods, intensifying fears the two won’t strike a deal before the end of the truce.
  • As the world awaits the outcome, trade data keeps worsening.
• The Reserve Bank of India’s unexpected rate cut is set to be the first in a wave of monetary policy easing across Asia in 2019, with the Philippines probably next.
  • Australia’s central bank cut growth and inflation forecasts in response to weaker consumption as it assesses how slumping property prices could reverberate across the economy.
• Finland’s nationwide basic income study failed to boost employment among the jobless people who received the money, according to preliminary results published in Helsinki on Friday.
• Finally, Bloomberg Businessweek takes a look at how Fed Chair Powell has steered central bank policy on a course charted by Janet Yellen.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Goodman in London at dgoodman28@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Zoe Schneeweiss

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