Factories across Asia and the euro-zone reported a general loss of momentum last month that speaks volumes about the need for more policy stimulus on top of Japan's latest efforts to ignite growth.
A second month of price-cutting in the euro-zone, alongside only tepid expansion in Germany - the bloc's growth engine - and contractions in France and Italy, will be disconcerting for the European Central Bank as it faces a real risk of deflation.
Meanwhile, regional manufacturing surveys from Asia were littered with unwelcome landmarks, including a five-month low for activity in China, a four-month trough for South Korea and a 14-month low for Indonesia.
Japan's bold move in expanding its already massive asset buying program raised expectations the ECB will eventually have to bite the bullet on quantitative easing, but the move faces opposition from Germany.
Beijing has already cut taxes, quickened some investment projects, offered short-term loans to banks, instructed local governments to spend their budgets and reduced the amount of deposits that some banks hold as reserves to spur lending.
Readings on Japanese activity were delayed by a holiday but will likely be overshadowed by the Bank of Japan's decision on Friday that took financial markets by surprise.
The BOJ's move stands in marked contrast with the Federal Reserve, which on Wednesday ended its own quantitative easing, judging that the U.S. economy had recovered enough to dispense with the emergency flood of cash into its financial system.
Some form of quantitative easing - buying asset-backed securities, corporate bonds or sovereign debt - is one of the last policy options the ECB has left to fight deflation risks and rekindle growth in the monetary union.
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