(Bloomberg) -- Happy Friday, Americas. Here's the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help get your day started:
- The Federal Reserve's top officials say the economy is in a good place and suggest further interest-rate increases will depend on incoming data, easing concerns about risks to their outlook
- That's after data showed the U.S. economy was steadier than thought at the end of last year, but it's probably too soon to give it a clean bill of health for 2019
- U.S. officials are preparing a final trade deal that Donald Trump and Xi Jinping could sign in weeks, as Chinese retaliation against tariffs costs U.S. firms about $40 billion a year in lost exports
- European and Asian factories also charted another weak month in February amid softening global demand and trade-war jitters
- European Central Bank policy makers will keep banks waiting for a decision on whether the euro-area slowdown is bad enough to warrant action -- before concluding that some form of its long-term loans should be revived, according to a survey
- Underlying price pressures in the region remain weak though
- The outcome of the lone meeting Nadine Baudot-Trajtenberg chaired at the Bank of Israel will resonate long after her five-year term as deputy governor ends this week
- Improvements in life expectancy are slowing in the world's advanced economies, but it may not be the fault of austerity policies
- A crucial 11 days for China's economy begins next week when leaders gather to detail priorities for the year; the nation's mounting pile of distressed debt has elevated market players' attention to one of its less obvious economic data points
- Finally, here's are weekly wrap of what happened in the global economy
To contact the reporter on this story: Lucy Meakin in London at lmeakin1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Zoe Schneeweiss
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