The government expects its interest payments on outstanding debt to roughly double over the next four years as the Bank of Japan’s gradual rate hikes push up borrowing costs, Bloomberg News reported. Interest payments are projected at ¥21.6 trillion ($139 billion) in the year starting April 2029, up from the current year’s budgeted ¥10.5 trillion, according to a Finance Ministry document released Thursday. The projections assume annual nominal economic growth of 3%. Overall debt-servicing costs are seen rising about 46% to ¥41.3 trillion during the same period.

Major Turkish holding company Zorlu began talks with state banks to restructure its debts, according to two people familiar with the private talks, in what could be the largest Turkish corporate loan structuring since the 2018 lira crisis, Reuters reported. Zorlu Holding, which owns valuable real estate as well as loss-making appliance and electronics firm Vestel Elektronik held CEO-level talks with state banks and smaller private lenders last week to begin setting out a restructuring plan, the two sources said.

Thailand’s central bank surprised markets with a rate cut at its first meeting of the year, delivering a second consecutive round of easing to bolster tentative signs of recovery, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Bank of Thailand’s monetary policy committee voted 4-2 on Wednesday to lower its policy rate to 1.00% from 1.25%. Two members voted to hold.

China said on Wednesday it had already met obligations linked to Washington's Section 301 unfair trade practices statute, after the U.S. Trade Representative signalled he would continue investigations that could lead to more tariffs, Reuters reported. Beijing made an agreement with the United States linked to that statute in 2020, a spokesperson from China's Commerce Ministry said. China hoped the U.S. would not "shift responsibility" or "provoke trouble" but will instead see that the agreement had been implemented, the spokesperson added in a statement. U.S.

China banned the export of critical minerals and other goods with potential military uses to several major Japanese companies, further escalating its pressure campaign against Tokyo over remarks Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made about Taiwan, the Wall Street Journal reported. The new measures, announced by China’s Commerce Ministry Tuesday, show Beijing isn’t backing down in its dispute with Japan, even after Takaichi won a resounding victory in a recent parliamentary election.

Private home prices in Hong Kong rose 0.5% in January, the eighth consecutive month of increase, strengthening signs of a housing recovery as analysts forecast prices to jump at least 10% this year, Reuters reported. Home prices edged higher in January from December on improved economic sentiment, Rating and Valuation Department data showed on Wednesday, following a revised 0.4% increase in December. Residential prices in Hong Kong, among the world's least affordable cities, climbed 3.7% in 2025, the first increase since they peaked in 2021.

China is closely monitoring U.S. policies and will decide "in due course" whether to adjust countermeasures to U.S. tariffs, a commerce ministry official said on Tuesday after President Donald Trump said he would levy a new temporary tariff of 15% on U.S. imports from all countries, Reuters reported. China is willing to hold frank consultations during an upcoming sixth round of U.S.-China economic and trade talks, the commerce ministry official added. "China has consistently opposed all forms of unilateral tariff measures and urges the U.S.

China banned the export of critical minerals and other goods with potential military uses to several major Japanese companies, further escalating its pressure campaign against Tokyo over remarks Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made about Taiwan, the Wall Street Journal reported. The new measures, announced by China’s Commerce Ministry Tuesday, show Beijing isn’t backing down in its dispute with Japan, even after Takaichi won a resounding victory in a recent parliamentary election.