Government debt around the world shot up last year to approach levels last seen in the aftermath of World War II, as nations stepped up spending to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic fallout, the International Monetary Fund said yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Public debt as a share of global gross domestic product surged to 98% by the end of December from 84% at the end of 2019, before the pandemic struck, the IMF said in an update to its semiannual Fiscal Monitor report.

In a move designed to position itself for future growth, satellite communications provider SpeedCast International Ltd is to emerge from U.S. chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after gaining bankruptcy court approval to restructure under a new owner, private equity firm Centerbridge Partners, Financier Worldwide reported.

Hong Kong’s stock rally is so dependent on mainland capital that the mere suggestion the record inflows will slow has the potential to stir panic in the city’s $7.1 trillion market, Bloomberg News reported. Such was the case on Tuesday, when the People’s Bank of China withdrew incremental liquidity and an adviser warned obliquely of asset bubbles. The result was the biggest drop in eight months for the Hang Seng Index.

In any normal year, a 1% contraction in South Korea’s economy would be disappointing. In 2020, it is a mark of resilience, as strong exports and success in containing Covid-19 buoyed Asian economies against one of the worst global downturns in modern history, the Wall Street Journal reported. The drop in gross domestic product, reported by the Bank of Korea on Tuesday, is expected to be one of the smallest among major economies, according to estimates from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The Delhi High Court on Monday issued notice in a petition challenging Section 10A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 insofar as it allows insolvency proceedings against persons and personal guarantors (Getamber Anand vs UOI), the GoaChronicle reported. A Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh sought response from Central government and Insolvency & Bankruptcy Board of India. The petitioner, Getamber Anand, is the Chairman and Managing Director of the ATS Group, a leading real estate group in the Delhi-NCR area.

China’s central bank won’t exit “prematurely” from its supportive monetary policies while at the same time keeping debt risks under control, Governor Yi Gang said, Bloomberg News reported. Monetary policy will continue to “prop up the economy,” Yi said on a panel hosted by the World Economic Forum on Tuesday. Officials will remain mindful of risks, such as a rising macro leverage ratio and higher non-performing loans, he said. “Looking forward, I think our monetary policy will continue,” he said.

When India revamped its bankruptcy code in 2016, some foreign investors were hopeful it would rewrite the rules of capitalism in the country. The big US distressed debt specialist Oaktree Capital was among those that saw opportunities to invest in the country following the attempt to turn one of the slowest insolvency regimes of any large economy into one of the fastest.

One year after the coronavirus pandemic first disrupted global supply chains by closing Chinese factories, fresh shipping headaches are delaying U.S. farm exports, crimping domestic manufacturing and threatening higher prices for American consumers, the Washington Post reported. The cost of shipping a container of goods has risen by 80 percent since early November and has nearly tripled over the past year, according to the Freightos Baltic Index.

Carnival Corp.’s flagship cruising brand extended its pause on U.S. departures through the end of April and shelved operations in Australia through mid-May amid lingering pandemic concerns, Bloomberg News reported. Carnival Cruise Line also canceled European trips on Carnival Legend that had been poised to start in May, and delayed trips on Mardi Gras from Port Canaveral, Fla., until the end of that month, according to a statement on Friday. The announcement is the latest in a long line of delays since the entire industry essentially went on hold in mid-March.