China's economy began the year on a firmer footing as factory output quickened while retail sales and ​investment rebounded in January-February, offering early relief for policymakers as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran injects fresh uncertainty for growth, Reuters reported. The resilience followed a surge in exports driven by booming AI-related ‌technology demand, which also buoyed upstream manufacturing, although analysts cautioned of risks to the outlook from geopolitical tensions, fragile consumer confidence and strains in global trade and energy markets.

The Reserve Bank of Australia is likely to raise interest rates this week to combat a worsening inflation outlook but it needs to dispense with vague messaging and signal forcefully that it won’t tolerate inflation above its target, the Wall Street Journal reported. “The RBA needs to stop equivocating on how long it is going to take to get inflation back to target,” John Simon, a former head of economic analysis at the central bank, said in an interview.

With the conflict in Iran rattling financial markets and oil prices, the Bank of Japan finds itself in a familiar dilemma, weighing a policy pause against the continued push for rate hikes, the Wall Street Journal reported. Escalating tensions in the Middle East have driven up crude prices, complicating the BOJ’s efforts to create stable 2% inflation backed by wage growth and demand, rather than higher costs.

Chinese lenders plan to steer more money toward technology and innovation-oriented firms, bankers say, responding to Beijing's pledge to aggressively adopt artificial intelligence throughout the economy and dominate emerging sectors, Reuters reports. The credit-allocation shift toward tech is ​well underway and is set to accelerate further under the government's plans, unveiled last week, to go all-in on technologies from AI, semiconductors to advanced manufacturing, ‌they said.

Turkey’s central bank held borrowing costs on Thursday and flagged that it could tighten interest rates should inflation rise further as war in the Middle East drives up energy prices, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Central Bank of Turkey held its benchmark one-week repo rate at 37.0%. Investors put slightly more chance of a hike than a hold, according to LSEG data ahead of the decision. In January, the bank cut its key rate for a fifth meeting in a row to 37.0% from 38.0%.

The Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal by foreign liquidators to sue Standard Chartered and BSI Bank over transactions allegedly linked to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) saga, blocking efforts to recoup assets lost in one of the world’s largest financial scandals, the Singapore Business Times reported.

Sonata Software Ltd has filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition in a US court against a retail client over unpaid dues of about $10.65 million, an amount equivalent to roughly 6.6% of the company’s incremental revenue last fiscal, LiveMint.com reported. The claim highlights the financial exposure from a client ramp-down in Sonata’s retail segment, which contributes about $100 million, or 8% of the company’s revenue, and comes as the firm is also grappling with a reduction in business from Microsoft Corp.