China’s willingness to extend credit has transformed it into the best friend of emerging markets, a Bloomberg View reported. But there are reasons to believe the flow of easy money may suddenly dry up — just as distressed economies from Argentina and Venezuela to Turkey and Pakistan look to Beijing for a lifeline that would be less onerous than an International Monetary Fund bailout. In the last decade, China made more than $62 billion of loans to Venezuela, where hyperinflation prompted the government to devalue the bolivar by 95 percent at the weekend.

Funds run by a host of blue-chip financial houses, including Fidelity and Goldman Sachs, were among those with a significant bet on Turkish debt as the country’s currency crisis deepened after the re-election of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Financial Times reported. Although the Turkish lira ended the week up about 5 per cent, the currency is still down 33 per cent since the start of July, while Turkish equities and bonds have fallen sharply as a diplomatic row with the US adds to investors’ longstanding concerns about the economy’s imbalances and runaway inflation.

Global EM equities slipped into bear market territory last week, with the MSCI index dropping 20 per cent from its January peak. While plenty of attention has naturally focused on Turkey’s woes, the worry for investors is that a number of EM economies, their currencies and domestic bond markets are feeling a significant burn from a strong US dollar.

Turkey’s attempts to stabilize its embattled financial markets have borne some fruit this week, sparking a relief rally in the lira, but investors are still looking for ways to hedge against any new shocks, The Wall Street Journal reported. The lira has gained around 24% against the dollar over the past three days after it hit a record low on Monday. The rally came after Qatar announced a $15 billion support package and Turkey’s banking regulator moved to limit the amount of the local currency banks can swap for foreign currencies with counterparts.

As former cricket star Imran Khan prepares to take his oath as Pakistan’s new prime minister Saturday, there’s one thing he must be clear about: Pakistan may be China’s friend at the moment, but the relationship could quickly turn sour. In the next month or so, Islamabad may have to take another bailout package from the International Monetary Fund — the country’s 13th, a Bloomberg View reported. The State Bank of Pakistan now holds just over $10 billion in foreign exchange reserves, giving enough room to buy only two months’ worth of imports. But the IMF route is tedious.

Lenders to Bhushan Power and Steel have zeroed in on JSW Steel as the most preferred bidder to take over the near-bankrupt company, the Financial Express reported. The Sajjan Jindal-led steelmaker has offered to pay Rs 19,350 crore to lenders of Bhushan Power against their total outstanding of Rs 47,000 crore and Rs 350 crore to the operational creditors in lieu of their admitted claims of Rs 700 crore.

The Supreme Court ruled that creditors can proceed against personal guarantors of a corporate debtor even while insolvency proceedings are on, Bloomberg Quint reported. The top court said the moratorium envisaged under Section 14 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code will not apply to the personal guarantors. The provision places a moratorium on any suits or proceedings against the company during the insolvency resolution period.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has found a benefactor to help pull Turkey from the brink of a financial crisis as Qatar promised to invest $15 billion in the country, Bloomberg News reported. The lira extended gains to 6 percent after Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Bin Al Thani made the pledge after a 3-1/2-hour meeting with Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday. It follows a string of urgent steps Erdogan has taken to protect its economy from an escalating feud with U.S. counterpart Donald Trump over an American pastor held in Turkey.

A Chinese local-government investment platform that defaulted on a Rmb500m bond payment on Monday has belatedly repaid the debt, according to local media, the Financial Times reported. China Business News, a respected Chinese newspaper, cited unnamed sources to report that Sixth Agriculture State-Owned Assets Management Co had already transferred the full amount due for principal and interest on the bond to Shanghai Clearing House, one of two main state-owned clearing house and custodians for China’s interbank bond market.

Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications is in discussions with TPG, Blackstone and other bidders over the sale of its remaining telecommunications assets in a deal that would mark the tycoon’s formal exit from India’s telecommunications sector, the Financial Times reported. According to people involved in the talks, the sale of RCom’s international submarine cable network, fixed-line telecoms network and data centres has attracted bids from I Squared Capital and a consortium comprising TPG, Blackstone and Varde.