Asia Pacific

Distressed textile giant PT Pan Brothers is closing in on its debt restructuring after seven months of negotiation with creditors, according to people familiar with the matter, as it works to avoid becoming the second Indonesian clothesmaker to be declared bankrupt this year, Bloomberg News reported. Creditors will vote Wednesday on the latest 8.6 trillion rupiah ($537 million) restructuring proposal by Pan Brothers, Bloomberg News reported earlier.

The New Zealand government said it expects the economy to exit years of recession in early 2025 supported by significant reductions in interest rates, the Wall Street Journal reported. A midyear update of the budget forecasts the farm-rich economy to grow 0.5% for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, before accelerating to 3.3% in the next fiscal year. However, the stronger growth momentum won’t speedily patch up the government’s budget bottom line with a return to surplus not expected until 2029.

Chinese leaders agreed last week to raise the budget deficit to 4% of gross domestic product (GDP) next year, its highest on record, while maintaining an economic growth target of around 5%, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. The new deficit plan compares with an initial target of 3% of GDP for 2024, and is in line with a "more proactive" fiscal policy outlined by leading officials after December's Politburo meeting and last week's Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC), where the targets were agreed but not officially announced.

Communist-run Vietnam is planning its boldest bureaucratic reform in decades, slashing ministries, agencies and broadcasters in a bid to reduce bottlenecks and red tape, but risking short-term "paralysis", officials and investors said, Reuters reported. Under the plan, five ministries, four government agencies and five state TV channels would be among the bodies that will cease to exist, according to Communist Party documents reviewed by Reuters and reports in state media.

A Tokushima-based startup that produced edible crickets has suspended operations and filed for bankruptcy after facing criticism over the use of its product in school lunches, it has been learned, the Japan News reported. Gryllus Inc. filed for bankruptcy at the Tokushima District Court on Nov. 7 with debts of about ¥153 million. The company had suffered poor performance after receiving criticism online due to the public’s resistance to the idea of eating insects.

China's industrial output rose 5.4% from a year earlier in November, quickening from October's 5.3% growth, signalling tentative stabilisation in the world's second-largest economy as recent stimulus measures start to gain traction, Reuters reported. Data released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics beat expectations for a 5.3% rise in a Reuters poll of 26 analysts. Retail sales, a gauge of consumption, grew 3.0% in November, down from a 4.8% rise in October. Analysts had predicted a 4.6% expansion.

China's home prices fell at the slowest pace in 17 months in November, with the crisis-hit property market showing signs of stabilising in some major cities amid government efforts to revive the real estate sector, Reuters reported. New home prices were down 0.1% in November from a month earlier, the slowest decline since June last year, according to Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics data on Monday. Prices dropped 0.5% in October from a month earlier. In annual terms, new home prices fell 5.7% after a 5.9% drop the previous month.

Pakistan cut its benchmark interest rate to the lowest in more than two years as easing inflation provides room for the central bank to boost growth, Bloomberg News reported. The State Bank of Pakistan lowered the target rate by 200 basis points to 13%, the central bank said in a statement Monday. All the 41 economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted the move, with 26 forecasting the exact measure. Interest rate has dropped to the lowest since April 2022.

Japan’s biggest bank apologized Monday for the alleged theft by an employee of more than 1 billion yen ($6.6 million) from customers’ safe deposit boxes, the Associated Press reported. The bank, formally known as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc., said Monday that it was investigating and that verified thefts from about 20 of the 60 clients thought to have been affected amounted to 300 million yen (nearly $2 million). Compensation was being worked out, it said.