Asia Pacific

Japanese companies have markedly slowed the pace of wage growth in one of the worst blows to hit the Abenomics stimulus since it was launched in 2012. As results of the annual “spring offensive” on wages poured in from across the manufacturing sector, many companies offered pay rises half the size of last year, and far below the pace needed to drive inflation to 2 per cent, the Financial Times reported. The results are a double blow to Shinzo Abe, prime minister, and the Bank of Japan.

A protest by Chinese coal workers over unpaid wages drew a swift, expected response: payoffs to get them off the streets and threats of police action if they don’t. The effort underscores the government’s long-standing worries about labor strife and its newly cautious approach to restructuring unprofitable state firms, The Wall Street Journal reported. Unrest in the northeastern city of Shuangyashan appeared to ease as Longmay Mining Holding Group Co., a huge employer, started disbursing some back pay on Monday, workers said.

The Bank of Japan said on Tuesday it would maintain its massive asset buying programme at existing levels but offered a bleaker view of the economy, suggesting it may roll out more stimulus as it struggles to reach an elusive inflation target, the International New York Times reported. However, the central bank appeared to back-pedal on its recent radical shift to negative interest rates, highlighting the dilemma the BOJ faces as it struggles to respond to renewed signs of economic weakness with dwindling policy options.

Unconventional monetary policies of central banks in Europe and Japan received an endorsement from the International Monetary Fund yesterday, even as policymakers from emerging markets warned that such policies were increasing risks for the global economy, the Irish Times reported. The debate over the merits of such policies comes days before major central banks such as the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan unveil their interest-rate decisions.

Chinese authorities are seeking to crack down on a surge of unregulated lending that is pushing up property prices in the country’s biggest cities, before it wreaks damage to the wider economy, the Financial Times reported. In comments at the weekend Zhou Xiaochuan, head of the People’s Bank of China, denounced loans for down payments on homes as illegal. Pan Gongsheng, a central bank vice-president, said regulators will act against the peer-to-peer companies that grant such loans.

Australian mining magnate Clive Palmer said on Sunday his nickel refinery in Queensland will be idle for at least eight weeks, due to a lack of ore and because government authorities have not yet fully approved its operation, Reuters reported. Speaking on Australian Broadcasting Corporation television, Palmer said the refinery is offline because there is "no ore" for it to process. "It will take at least eight weeks to get ore on the ground so the refinery could operate," Palmer said.

China is exploring a new way to grapple with its mounting pile of bad corporate debt, though its top central banker sought on Saturday to dispel worries that the plan would simply shift the burden to other parts of the country’s vast economy, the International New York Times reported. Under the tentative proposal, Chinese officials would allow banks saddled with growing quantities of bad loans to sell that debt to investors, said Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the People’s Bank of China.

Factories and retailers in China put in weaker-than-expected performances in the first two months of the year, as anemic demand and excess capacity continued to bear down on the world’s second-largest economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. Industrial production grew 5.4% in January and February compared with a year earlier, down from December’s 5.9% pace, according to government data released Saturday, and just below the 5.6% forecast by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.

A new approach to managing China’s corporate debt burden may offer temporary relief for banks but spell further difficulties for the country’s economy: having deeply troubled companies use stock to pay overdue loans, the International New York Times reported. Early evidence of the strategy emerged late Thursday, when a heavily indebted Chinese shipbuilder disclosed that it would issue equity to its creditors, instead of repaying $2.17 billion in bank loans.

Chinese officials are trying anew to slow a money exodus from the country, clamping down on individuals seeking to flee the yuan and making life tougher for companies that need to trade the currency for dollars to do business, The Wall Street Journal reported. China’s foreign-exchange regulator in recent months has deployed a new system to monitor individual purchases of foreign funds and has asked banks to reduce foreign-currency transactions.