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Sick Days, British Endemic, China Omicron Threat: Eco Day

Sick Days, British Endemic, China Omicron Threat: Eco Day

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Welcome to Monday, Europe. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the week.

  • With the omicron wave of the pandemic rapidly spreading across the U.S., the robust economic recovery is facing a new threat that policy makers have little control over: people calling in sick
    • Staff shortages caused by Covid-19 illness and mandatory isolation could result in a 35-billion pound ($48 billion) loss in U.K.’s output over January and February, according to The Sunday Times
  • Britain is “on a path towards transitioning from pandemic to endemic” as the government drafts plans to live with Covid-19, said the country’s education secretary
  • Concern among some big European nations about economic fallout raises the risk of a split with the U.S. on how strongly to hit Russia with fresh sanctions if it invades Ukraine, according to people familiar with the matter
  • Joachim Nagel could have wished for a less gloomy start as Bundesbank chief
  • Romania’s central bank will probably raise borrowing costs to tame decade-high inflation and catch up with its peers in the region that have taken a more aggressive approach in tightening monetary policy
  • The ECB’s inflation forecasts may need to be revised upward
    • Inflation in the euro region accelerated, defying expectations for a slowdown and complicating the task for ECB officials who insist the current spike is temporary
  • The Federal Reserve will likely raise interest rates four times year this and will start its balance sheet runoff process in July, if not earlier, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
  • China’s latest Covid-19 flareup isn’t exacerbating bottlenecks that are snarling global supply chains and isn’t making the global inflation problem any worse, according to Bloomberg Economics
    • China saw its first omicron cases in the community Sunday, igniting a mass testing blitz in the northern city of Tianjin; subsequently, two cases in the central province of Henan have been confirmed as omicron variant
  • Annual approvals to build new homes across Australia skidded in November and economists expect activity to cool further this year as the omicron variant of coronavirus worsens shortages from staff to materials
  • Canada’s labor market beat expectations in December, a strong end to a record year for employment gains

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

With assistance from Bloomberg