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BOE's Empty Desks, Mnuchin Interview, RBA's Sydney Woes: Eco Day

BOE's Empty Desks, Mnuchin Interview, RBA's Sydney Woes: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Happy Wednesday, Europe. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help get your day started:

  • The U.S. and China are planning to hold meetings in January to negotiate their trade wars, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in an interview with Bloomberg. He also deflected blame for a gaping budget deficit and dismissed the significance of a flattening yield curve
  • To hike or pause? The Fed faces a tough call as it comes under sustained fire from Donald Trump. The president issued a fresh appeal to the bank to avoid making “yet another mistake” just hours before it starts its two-day meeting
  • Meanwhile, the Bank of England needs to become more cost conscious, with empty desks and a surplus of complex job titles identified as areas of potential waste, according to a report by the National Audit Office
  • Slovenian lawmakers are voting for the second time in as many months to choose a new central bank governor after they shot down an initial candidate
  • Sydney’s plunging house prices are usurping a prolonged wage slump as the key worry for the central bank, with markets now showing more chance of an interest-rate cut than a hike in 2019
  • Fear of fear itself has now become an economic risk as “uncertainty” spreads in the lead up to 2019

To contact the reporter on this story: Enda Curran in Hong Kong at ecurran8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Malcolm Scott at mscott23@bloomberg.net, Chris Bourke

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