Asia Pacific

China’s feat in keeping growth from slipping below 7% and averting a stock-market collapse eases short-term pressure on policy makers but is likely to make Beijing’s long-term goals harder to reach, The Wall Street Journal reported. Since November, Beijing has tried to goose growth with four broad interest-rate cuts, several reductions in required bank reserves and hundreds of announced infrastructure projects. Such measures have worked before but tend to worsen debt.

With Hong Kong riven by political deadlock, politicians and investors have repeatedly warned in recent years that the financial centre risks sliding into irrelevance as its Chinese rivals Shanghai and Shenzhen go from strength to strength, the Financial Times reported. But some argue that China’s latest bout of stock market turmoil — and Beijing’s panicked response — has provided an unexpected boon to Hong Kong, highlighting the open nature of its financial markets and its more robust regulatory system.

An inquiry into insolvency in the construction industry should visit Adelaide to listen to the experience of the building industry in the wake of the collapse of Tagara Builders, according to a union official, ABC News reported. Tagara had about $70 million in projects across South Australia before it went into liquidation in June owing more than $20 million. Creditors will meet with liquidators Clifton Hall on Tuesday for the first time to hear about the business' position.

China’s jobless data suggest weakening growth hasn’t dragged down employment. But a new study by the International Monetary Fund points to factors that could obscure signs of strain in the country’s job market, The Wall Street Journal reported. China’s registered jobless rate has remained stable at around 4% in recent years.

At the height of the frenzy for Chinese stocks, just about every company was a winner, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. An online gaming start-up was valued at $7 billion. Shares in a fireworks company that had moved into finance shot up 300 percent. A struggling property developer was transformed into a stock market darling, just by changing its name to suggest it was an Internet company.

The developer of the unfinished $3.5 billion Baha Mar mega resort in the Bahamas has accused China Construction America of cutting power to the work site, inflating expenses and trying to steal documents stuffed in suitcases, U.S. court filings show. China Construction America, a unit of China State Construction Engineering Corp Ltd, denied the allegations, saying in a statement on Friday the developer is trying to deflect attention from its own mismanagement of the troubled project.

Bhushan Steel Ltd (BSL) has received lenders' approval for long-term restructuring of about Rs 30,000 crore loans under a scheme of Reserve Bank of India. The Joint Lenders Forum (JLF) has agreed to extend the loans of BSL for a tenure of 25 years under the RBI's scheme for long-term structuring of loans in line with cash flows. "About 70 per cent of the lenders have approved the scheme and by the end of this month it should get closed", Bhushan Steel Chief Finance Officer (CFO) Nittin Johari told the Press Trust of India.

The National Guarantee Fund, a compensation vehicle for investors, has admitted it does not currently have the resources to handle a jump in claims from the collapse of BBY, and is seeking to rectify the situation, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. The Securities Exchanges Guarantee Corporation, the fund's administrator, is considering setting up a panel of law firms to assist with, and expedite potential claims.

The Chinese government struggled in vain Wednesday to prevent the distress in the country’s stock markets from spreading, as it openly fought market forces it has pledged to give a larger role, The Wall Street Journal reported. Early Wednesday, the Chinese authorities rushed out another raft of emergency measures to halt what is turning into a crisis of confidence in leaders’ ability to steer the economy. But before the day was over the equities selloff had spilled into offshore trading in the Chinese yuan and worsened a drop in global commodity prices.

Far more than simply a market crisis, the Chinese leadership views turmoil on the Shanghai stock exchange as a potential security threat to the regime, The Wall Street Journal reported. That helps explain the barrage of measures unleashed by financial authorities to counter a sudden market downturn that threatened to shake public confidence in the government.