China Stimulus Shot, BOE Pressure, U.S. Emergency Bill: Eco Day

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Welcome to Thursday, Asia. Here's the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the day:

• The biggest shock to the world economy since the financial crisis is stoking expectations that China will ramp up stimulus with interest-rate cuts, cash injections and more support for struggling companies
• Incoming BOE chief Andrew Bailey said the central bank will work with the Treasury to help the economy withstand the coronavirus. Market speculation is mounting that the bank will follow the Fed with an emergency rate cut
• U.S. lawmakers agreed on a $7.8 billion emergency spending bill to fund the government's response to the coronavirus outbreak, according to Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby
• The Bank of Canada cut half a percentage point from its benchmark rate, easing monetary policy for the first time in more than four years as it followed the Fed in trying to protect its economy. Now it's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's turn
• Fed's St. Louis chief James Bullard said markets are wrong to assume that the central bank will cut rates again at the policy meeting in two weeks because it's unlikely officials will know much more about how the coronavirus is affecting the outlook
• Indonesia's finance minister urged other nations to follow the Fed in delivering a rate cuts, warning the economic threat from the virus is global and demands a multi-pronged policy response
• The coronavirus outbreak threatens to plunge both France and Italy into recession, and the ripples from a prolonged outbreak could incite a “vicious” spiral of declining markets, European finance ministers have been warned
• America's service industries in February enjoyed the fastest growth in a year as orders surged, showing momentum in the biggest part of the economy before the hit of the coronavirus
• Lebanon's government is lurching from one extreme solution to another as it wrangles over whether to repay $1.2 billion of notes maturing in five days and avoid default

To contact the reporter on this story: Alexandra Veroude in Sydney at averoude4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Jackson at pjackson53@bloomberg.net, Michael Heath

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