Powell Price Uncertainty, China’s Scare, IMF Reserves: Eco Day

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

• Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the price increases seen in the economy recently are bigger than expected but reiterated that they will likely wane. Meantime, New York Fed chief John Williams said a discussion about raising interest rates is still quite a ways off
• The worst of China’s inflation scare is probably over, writes David Qu
• The IMF will discuss a proposal to create a $650 billion of reserves
• China’s military deployment along its disputed Himalayan border with India and uncertainty over whether Beijing will fulfill its promise on troop reductions remains a challenge for ties between the neighbors
• Bloomberg Economics has lowered its outlook for Southeast Asia’s six largest economies amid some of the worst outbreaks of Covid
• Thailand’s central bank is expected to keep its key interest rate unchanged at a record low, while cutting its growth forecast
• Indonesia’s parliament is set to begin discussing a bill to overhaul the tax code, as the country seeks much-needed state revenue
• Catherine Mann, a former chief economist at Citigroup and the OECD, will become a policy maker at the Bank of England from September
• Globalization had only a small role to play in suppressing inflation in developed economies including the euro area, the ECB said
• British and European officials are increasingly optimistic they will avert a post-Brexit trade war, believing the two sides will strike a truce in the dispute over goods moving into Northern Ireland
• Justin Trudeau had harsh words for China after Beijing called for a UN probe into crimes against Indigenous children in Canada. Meantime, Australians’ trust in China has dropped to a record low as more people see it as a security threat than an economic partner

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