U.S. Job’s Day, Draghi Disappointment, New Normal: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Good morning Americas. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to send you into the weekend:

• It’s U.S. jobs day, and while America’s jobs engine may have cooled a bit last month, wages probably heated up as U.S. companies struggled to fill positions in a tightening market
• U.S. and European central banks are reconciling themselves to a new normal of historically low interest rates and bloated balance sheets
• Still, Mario Draghi’s latest and potentially last salvo to boost the euro-area economy risks not being enough. Bloomberg Economics’s Jamie Murray says the measures fail to offer a material injection of fresh stimulus
  • Meanwhile some European Central Bank policy makers consider the institution’s downgraded growth forecast for 2019 is still too optimistic, according to people with knowledge of the matter
• Chile’s headline inflation in February kept virtually the same pace as the previous year at 1.7%, giving the central bank room to hold rates as price rises remain below the target range
• Italy’s women are lagging the rest of Europe when it comes to economic activity, leaving the nation missing out on billions of euros each year
• China’s exports fell in February and imports also weakened due to the Lunar New Year shutdown and continued uncertainty from the trade war
  • That came after a week where China’s annual leaders gathering in Beijing unleashed a flurry of policy initiatives, key among them a shift that puts fiscal policy decisively at the forefront of stimulus.
• Finally, here our our wrap of what’s going on in the world economy after a week of dovish turns at central banks

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, Zoe Schneeweiss

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