ECB Price Question, Trump Trade Campaign, Virus Threat: Eco Day

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Welcome to Wednesday, Europe. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the day:

• Five years to the day since the European Central Bankannounced massive cash injections to stave off deflation, President Christine Lagarde wants to know why price growth is still so lackluster
• In Davos, President Donald Trump is sending some warm, and some mixed, messages to European nations that have been enduring his tariff threats for almost three years; Trump forecast a “big trade deal” with the EU
• 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
• China is aiming to damp worries that its latest trade deal with the U.S. may hurt other nations that export to the world’s second-biggest economy
• 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
• India’s double whammy of slowing growth and surging inflation is spreading among emerging markets
• Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz is telling investors in Argentine debt to brace for major losses
• South Korea’s economy finished its slowest year of growth since the global financial crisis with a spurt, signaling the worst could be over for the Asian bellwether of global tech trade
• Bank Indonesia probably will stay accommodative to help bolster Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, the central bank’s chief said Wednesday; the country’s proposed omnibus bill could deliver a big boost to growth if it makes its way through parliament unscathed, writes Tamara Henderson

To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Jamrisko in Singapore at mjamrisko@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, Jiyeun Lee

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