Trade Talks, ECB Loans, German Data, Italy's Isolation: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Happy Friday, Americas. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help get your day started and send you into the weekend:

• Trade watchers are hoping for better news out of U.S.-China talks as President Donald Trump is set to meet China’s lead negotiator Friday in Washington, though China economists are less upbeat about being able to stop the U.S. tariff increases.
  • Bloomberg Economics’ Maeva Cousin explains what’s at stake from U.S. auto tariffs on the euro-area economy
• European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said a decision on new loans for banks could wait until the summer -- and there’s even a chance they might not be needed at all if the euro-area slowdown proves temporary
• Germany offered mixed signals on Friday that suggest Europe’s largest economy is down but not out
  • Meanwhile, changing dining preferences are having an effect on key economic indicators
• Italy’s recession at the end of 2018 was almost unprecedented among the euro area’s major members and provided further evidence of the self-inflicted damage to the economy
• South Africa’s central bank is unlikely to officially pursue a single point-inflation target soon, even though it prefers to anchor price growth close to the 4.5 percent mid-point of its goal range, an adviser to Governor Lesetja Kganyago said
• China’s central bank is signaling more “targeted” stimulus as a preferred option
• Finally, here’s are weekly wrap of what happened in the global economy

To contact the reporter on this story: Zoe Schneeweiss in London at zschneeweiss@bloomberg.net

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

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