Central Banks Pressured, EU Recovery Fund, BOJ Buying: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Welcome to Monday, Europe. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the week:

• The restart of the world economy risks going ahead without a key ingredient: the consumer
• Global central banks remain under pressure to do more to support their economies even after driving interest rates to record lows and pledging to spend trillions of dollars on asset purchases
• Bloomberg Economics’ best-case scenario for the euro area this year is an 8% reduction in gross domestic product: Chart
• A European Union recovery fund worth around 1.5 trillion euros ($1.62 trillion) needs to be available by mid-September and include loans as well as a portion of non-repayable money, EU Economy and Financial Affairs Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said
• The Bank of Japan scrapped a limitation on buying government bonds and ramped up its buying of corporate debt, joining global counterparts in their unprecedented expansion of monetary stimulus as the coronavirus hammers the world economy
• China should maintain liquidity at a reasonably ample level and offer targeted support to companies, central bank Governor Yi Gang said
  • Profits of Chinese industrial companies continued to fall as business activity struggled to recover from the aftermath of the coronavirus
• When the timeline of the pandemic of 2020 is complete, March 24 will stand out as a day to remember for everyone from sports fans to anthropologists to cola drinkers
• Nearly one-third of U.S. business economists expect operations at their companies will return to normal within five to eight weeks, though almost as many say it’s likely to be three to six months before coronavirus-mitigation efforts wind down in earnest
• Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that “over time” the U.S. will need to look into the sharply rising budget deficits created by the multi-trillion-dollar coronavirus support packages
• Australia’s fiscal stimulus to combat fallout from the coronavirus is the largest in the Group of 20, Deutsche Bank AG says, and could result in national debt breaching the A$1 trillion ($643 billion) mark

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