Trump’s trade salvos test nerves of central bankers

Close watch: People ride scooters past the Marriner S. Eccles Fed building in Washington. Central bankers struggling to gauge whether the impact will be greater on growth or inflation may well choose to do nothing for now. — Bloomberg

WASHINGTON: An anxious sense of wait-and-see may emerge from central banks in the coming week, in their first collective assessment of how president Donald Trump’s trade policies are impacting the world economy.

While officials from Washington to London and Tokyo have already set borrowing costs once since the US president entered the White House in January, those decisions preceded a marked escalation in his rhetoric and measures against neighbours, allies and competitors alike.