U.S. GDP, U.S.-China Trade Talks, Brexit Impact in U.K.: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Good morning Americas. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help get your day started:

• After a month-long delay due to the federal shutdown, data out Thursday will show just how much steam the U.S. economy lost in the fourth quarter -- and what it all means for 2019
• Trade talks between U.S. and China risk shutting out the rest of the world, meaning, as the superpowers get closer to some form of agreement, the global trade regime could suffer.
• The race to succeed Mario Draghi as president of the European Central Bank looks increasingly like a Franco-Finnish affair, according to the latest Bloomberg survey of economists.
  • Meanwhile, Philip Lane, the governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, is set to be the next chief economist of the ECB. He is considered a monetary policy dove, but there’s more to his views on how the euro area should function, says Bloomberg Opinion’s Leonid Bershidsky.
• Brexit continues to take a toll on the U.K., with new figures Thursday showing a fall in business confidence and continued weakness in the property market.
• South Korea’s central bank left its key interest rate unchanged as the outlook for Asia’s fourth-largest economy weakens amid falling exports, soft jobs growth and waning inflation.
• The Reserve Bank of Australia’s estimates of the exchange rate’s fair value show the currency last year fell further than the central bank expected as the economy slowed.
• Finally, here’s a look at how almost two decades of profligate monetary policy has destroyed Zimbabwe’s economy.

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

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

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