Asia Pacific

China’s economy appears to have survived its near miss with a damaging bout of consumer-price deflation—for now, the Wall Street Journal reported. After a grim June and July, China’s main August economic data, released Friday, contained clear hints of improvement. The news from the critical housing sector, which is mired in a protracted slump, was less encouraging: Price falls accelerated in lower-tier cities. But growth in retail sales accelerated to 4.6% from a year earlier, from just 2.5% in July. Unemployment ticked down marginally.

Blockchain researchers say North Korea-linked hackers are likely behind a $70 million theft from crypto exchange CoinEx, Reuters reported. CoinEx, which says it is based in Hong Kong, said on Tuesday on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that wallets used to store the exchange's crypto assets had been hacked. It said on Friday it estimates its losses at $70 million, which it said is a "small portion" of its total assets.

China's central bank said on Thursday it would cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves for the second time this year to boost liquidity and support the country's economic recovery, Reuters reported. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said it would cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for all banks, except those that have implemented a 5% reserve ratio, by 25 basis points from Sept. 15. The reduction follows a 25-bps cut for all banks in March and comes as the world's second-biggest economy is struggling to sustain a post-pandemic recovery.

China is carrying out a massive anticorruption purge across its healthcare sector, in an effort to bring down medical costs and revive the country’s flagging economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. Communist Party enforcers have steamrolled through hospitals and medical institutions across China, detaining more than 190 hospital party chiefs, directors and deputy directors—incumbent and former—so far this year, according to a Wall Street Journal review of government disclosures.

Singapore’s approach to crypto became more conservative after the collapse of FTX but the island remains crypto friendly overall, said Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, chief executive of the Binance digital-asset exchange, Bloomberg News reported. The Hong Kong crypto regime that took effect mid-year only allows a limited number of tokens for trading by retail investors, he said Thursday via video link at the Token2049 conference in Singapore. Tighter regulations generally have prompted many traditional financial institutions to hold back on offering cash to crypto services and vice versa, he added.

Singapore’s central bank imposed nine-year prohibition orders on Su Zhu and Kyle Davies for transgressions at their collapsed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, Bloomberg News reported. The orders from the city-state’s financial watchdog took effect Wednesday and ban both men from any regulated activity, according to a Monetary Authority of Singapore statement on Thursday. Zhu and Davies are also prohibited from managing, being directors of, or becoming substantial shareholders of any capital market services company under the Securities and Futures Act, the statement showed.

Employers hired almost 65,000 more workers in August, many more than expected, improving the prospects that the economy will avoid a hard landing but also raising the possibility the Reserve Bank may hike interest rates again, the Guardian reported. The unemployment rate last month was 3.7%, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. Economists had forecast the economy would add 25,000 jobs in August, which would have left the jobless rate at July’s reported level of 3.7%. Of the 64,900 extra jobs recorded in August, all but 2,800 of them were part-time roles.

Lenders to Indian education-technology company Byju’s have alleged that it covertly transferred $533 million to a Florida-based hedge fund, adding another dimension to their legal feud with one of India’s most highly valued startups, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. A lender lawsuit filed in a Miami court last week alleges Byju’s sent $533 million that should have been in its U.S. affiliate’s bank accounts to Camshaft Capital, described as a Miami-area hedge fund, and concealed the whereabouts of that money from the company’s lenders.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) will hear on September 26 the resolution plan for debt-ridden Reliance Capital submitted by Hinduja Group firm Indusind International Holdings Ltd (IIHL) as Torrent Investments' plea to keep the decision in abeyance has been rejected, the Economic Times of India reported. The Mumbai bench of the insolvency tribunal has rejected the Torrent's plea to keep the application for approving IIHL's resolution plan in abeyance till a final order is passed by the Supreme Court in the matter.

China's largest private property developer Country Garden won approval from its creditors to extend repayments on six onshore bonds by three years, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, sending shares up as much as 10%, Reuters reported. The bondholder reprieve came as investors are closely monitoring whether China's latest government stimulus measures including lowering existing mortgage rates and offering preferential loans for first-home purchases in big cities might be enough to restore consumer confidence and sow the seeds for an eventual property market recovery.