Singapore’s Challenge, Japan’s Spree, Merkel’s Billions: Eco Day

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

• One of Singapore’s top political leaders said the city-state faces a “major and urgent challenge” in the period ahead, warning of more job losses to come. Meantime, Singapore and China agreed to ease quarantine requirements for business and official travelers
• Japan’s ramped-up support for its economy is likely to require a third extra budget to help plug a record hole between surging spending and sliding tax receipts
• Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition agreed on a sweeping 130 billion-euro ($146 billion) stimulus package designed to spur short-term consumer spending and get businesses investing again
• The Trump administration is suspending passenger flights to the U.S. by Chinese airlines, saying it was retaliating after Beijing barred American carriers from re-entering China amid escalating tensions
• Until recently feted for its world-beating economic growth, India today is Asia’s coronavirus hotspot, facing a long road out of a crisis that’s left businesses broken and millions jobless
• U.S. companies cut payrolls in May at one-third of the forecast pace, a private report showed, offering some hope the downturn is easing. Yet The pandemic isn’t finished with the labor market, threatening a second wave of job cuts—this time among white-collar workers
• Fed action to keep credit flowing rewards risky behavior and the remedy may be tougher regulation in the future, said former New York Fed chief William Dudley
• ECB policy makers have been told to be bold with cash for recovery
• With cash flow drying up at Thailand’s popular beach resort of Phuket, hotels are racing to restart tourism -- starting with locals
• Bloomberg Economics’ global GDP growth tracker suggests output continued to fall in May, albeit at a slower pace than in April
• Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he will give as many as three million Hong Kong residents the chance to seek refuge in the U.K. if China proceeds with plans to impose a new security law on the former British colony

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