Populists Run 68% of GDP, China Stimulus, Trade Jaw-Jaw: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Welcome to Monday, Asia. Here's the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help get your day started:

• Some 68% of G-20 GDP is run by populists in democracies or non-democratic regimes, Tom Orlik calculates, up from 33% in 2016, and there are increasing signs their bad policies are hurting growth
• China's top officials pledged to lower tariffs and expedite debt sales in 2019 as they seek to manage an economic slowdown. Meantime, central bank chief Yi Gang said the nation's financial markets are still relatively closed, so there's plenty of scope to increase access
• The trade war between the U.S. and China comes back into focus this week as U.S. negotiators head to Beijing for another round of talks
• A property market boom could lead to employees being more distracted at work as they spend extra time shopping online, and show up late or leave early, a study found
• This looks like a textbook example of political meddling with a central bank in an emerging market, except it's happening in the U.S. President Donald Trump's nomination of Stephen Moore to be a Fed governor has drawn swift pushback
• The euro-area economy looks poised to get some lift from what once helped to push it into crisis: government spending. It probably needs it given the weakness across France and Germany
• The inversion of the yield curve all the way out to 10-year maturities poses a potentially troubling signal for the economic outlook, if it's sustained, our economists say in a preview of the week ahead. The yield on Australia's 10-year note opened below 1.8 percent on Monday for the first time on record
• India's economy is rebounding, aided by a new central bank chief who pulled a policy U-turn to support growth, writes Abhishek Gupta
• Turkey started an investigation into JPMorgan and another probe of unspecified banks that the regulator reproached for stoking the lira's biggest plunge since last year's crash. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned bankers deemed responsible for creating excessive demand for hard currency and making misleading predictions on currencies will “pay a heavy price” after elections

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Heath in Sydney at mheath1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, Chris Bourke

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