China Corporate Debt, Model Test Case, Jobs for Life: Eco Day

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

• China’s corporate leverage is ramping up again, before borrowers had even finished working down the last surge. Meanwhile a global consumer default wave is just getting started
• The coronavirus crisis is proving a test case for contrasting social models, as governments in the U.S. and Europe pursue different policies to cushion their economies from much the same shock
• A longtime thorn for businesses and productivity in Japan and South Korea is set to prove a bulwark for those economies as the coronavirus threatens millions of jobs around the world
• Before the coronavirus pandemic besieged Europe, KikeSarasola thought he wasn’t building enough hotels to capitalize on the region’s tourism boom. Now, the only guests are doctors and nurses fighting the deadly disease
• Australia will announce further income support for workers as part of a third stimulus package. There will be tighter restrictions on foreign takeovers to prevent local companies under temporary pressure being snapped up
• Meanwhile, Australia’s central bank netted about 2.5% of the bond market in its first six days of purchases. Yet, the scale of government fiscal stimulus in the pipeline sees little danger of it following Japan’s path and holding too many securities.
• But is it enough? Tom Orlik and the team at Bloomberg Economics survey the scene of government and central bank pledges
• South Africa’s National Treasury sees the downgrade of the country’s debt to junk by Moody’s Investors Service as an opportunity to fix the economy
• The Bank of Israel reduced capital requirements for commercial lenders by a full percentage point and urged their boards of directors to re-examine dividend and share buyback policies
• The Philippine central bank is ready to support the economy with more interest rate cuts and purchases of government securities, Governor Benjamin Diokno said
• The past century of global economic integration through trade has been a steady march of progress -- all spinning a web of commerce so intricate that it spawned a new science: Supply chains

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