Trade Talk at Davos, Fed’s Climate Role, Canada Rates: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) --

Good morning Americas. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the day:

• Trade has been a hot topic in Davos today. President Donald Trump said he’s begun talks with World Trade Organization director-general Roberto Azevedo on changing the structure of the body, which he complained has been unfair to the U.S.

  • Trump also indicated that the EU plans what he called an “emergency meeting” to prepare for trade negotiations with the U.S.
• Staying on trade U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin dangled the prospect of retaliatory tariffs on automobile imports if countries go ahead with digital taxation plans
• When bad things happen to economies, or threaten to, the world has gotten used to seeing central banks at the front line of defense -- with the Federal Reserve in the lead. That’s not how the climate crisis is playing out
• Stephen Poloz is heading into the final few months of his term as Bank of Canada governor showing few signs of giving up his status as one of the industrialized world’s most hawkish central bankers
• Five years to the day since the European Central Bank announced massive cash injections to stave off deflation, President Christine Lagarde wants to know why price growth is still so lackluster
• In Scandinavia’s richest economy, the central bank used to stand out for its determination to raise interest rates. Now, Norway seems about as reluctant to unwind monetary support as others, with all economists surveyed predicting a rate hold on Thursday
• Optimism among U.K. manufacturers jumped the most on record in the three months through January, further complicating Bank of England policy makers’ debateover the need for imminent easing.
• The outbreak of a new respiratory virus could put China’s fragile economic stabilization at risk if authorities fail to contain its spread, economists have warned; it also threatens the tourism-reliant Thai economy, among others
  • The changing structure of Chinese economy -- with a larger services sector -- means a disease outbreak that hits shopping and leisure activities will have a bigger economic impact, Tom Orlik writes

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

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

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