The World’s Central Banker, China Slows, Europe Output: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) --

Welcome to Friday, Americas. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help get your day started:

• Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is starting to sound a bit like he’s the world’s central banker
  • The most accurate currency forecasters see the dollar weakening this year and the euro benefiting, as the U.S. looks set to outpace Europe in monetary policy easing
• Donald Trump complained that China hasn’t increased its purchases of U.S. farm products, a promise he said he secured at a meeting with Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 summit
• It’s not all about the trade war though. China is grappling with a slowdown as factors far beyond the spat with the U.S. weigh on the world’s second-largest economy
  • The most worrying sign in China’s June trade data was another month of undershoot in imports, writes Bloomberg Economics’s Chang Shu
• An unexpected contraction in Singapore’s economy in the second quarter sent a warning shot to the world economy as simmering trade tensions wilt business confidence and activity
• Yet Europe’s economy got a shot in the arm on Friday with a report showing the biggest jump in industrial production in four months
• The Bank of England needs a dramatic revamp of its communications and should publish a preferred interest rate path to improve an “unnecessarily complex” system, according to one policy maker

To contact the reporter on this story: Lucy Meakin in London at lmeakin1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Gordon at pgordon6@bloomberg.net, Zoe Schneeweiss

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