Asia Pacific

It was an odd sort of rallying cry. Just after Sadakazu Tanigaki’s appointment as secretary-general of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic party on Wednesday, the former finance minister said that taxes on consumption should go up again next year, according to the law passed two years ago, the Financial Times reported. Higher taxes “contribute to fiscal stability and help expand policy options”, he said, noting only that “side-effects” should be monitored.

Bond market heavyweights, backed by Washington, have come up with a plan they say should avoid a repeat of the sovereign debt meltdown between Argentina and its holdout creditors, the Financial Times reported. The International Capital Market Association, a group representing banks, lawyers, brokers and issuers from 53 countries, has published new terms for government bonds that Leland Goss, managing director, says should reduce the risk of future sovereign debt restructurings being disrupted by a few holdout creditors.

Japanese chipmaker Renesas Electronics may cut more jobs as it finishes a massive restructuring that is focusing its business on the automotive and industrial sectors and has pulled it back into the black after years of losses, Reuters reported. Remaining steps will focus on selling factories and exiting businesses announced in a 2012 restructuring framework, updated a year ago, with about 40 percent of the plan still to be implemented, Renesas Chairman and CEO Hisao Sakuta told a media round table on Tuesday. "To be honest, maybe we still have slightly too many people," Sakuta said.

Batelco will pursue its former Indian business partner for $212 million it says he owes the company, even though he was declared bankrupt last week, the Bahraini telecom operator said on Sunday, Reuters reported. Chinnakannan Sivasankaran, the chairman of Chennai-based Siva, filed for bankruptcy in the Seychelles after a British court in June ordered Siva and Sivasankaran to pay the money to Batelco's wholly owned subsidiary BMIC. This related to their failed Indian joint venture. The court also issued an indefinite worldwide freeze on the defendants' assets.

Growth in China’s vast factory sector slackened in August as foreign and domestic demand slowed, surveys showed Monday, stoking speculation that further stimulus measures would be needed to prevent the economy from stumbling, the International New York Times reported. At the same time, surveys of purchasing managers across Asia told a tale of fewer new orders and faltering exports, but with brighter spots like India and Taiwan.

In a situation eerily reminiscent of the perfect storm that engulfed Irish property developers at the end of the boom, fears are growing over the astronomical debt exposure of developers in China, the world’s second-largest economy, where house sales and prices are falling rapidly, the Irish Times reported. Cash-strapped Chinese developers are borrowing a record amount in the offshore loan market this year, adding to the highest debt loads since 2005.

A group representing more than 400 of the world’s largest banks, investors and debt issuers has agreed a plan for dealing with financially stricken countries and their creditors, in a bid to prevent a repeat of the wrangling that has pushed Argentina into default, the Financial Times reported. After months of talks convened by the US Treasury in the wake of Greece’s restructuring, global debt experts will on Friday unveil a new framework that could transform the relationship between critically indebted nations and lenders.

Qantas Airways Ltd reported its biggest ever financial loss on Thursday after writing a hefty A$2.6 billion (1.45 billion pounds) off the value of its fleet due to a company restructure, Reuters reported. Australia's national flag carrier attempted to reassure investors after a turbulent few years, saying the worst was now behind it and that it expected a return to underlying profit growth in the first half of the current financial year.

South Korea’s competition watchdog is investigating the country’s four largest commercial banks over possible interest rates collusion, adding to a growing list of probes globally into the alleged rigging of various financial prices and benchmarks, the Financial Times reported. The Fair Trade Commission sent inspectors to Kookmin Bank, Woori Bank, Shinhan and Hana Bank this week to look into data related to setting interest rates, officials at each of the banks said on Wednesday.

In the latest sign of Chinese developers’ desperation to unload inventory into a weak property market, China Vanke Co is offering discounts of up to $325,000 to homebuyers who shop on Alibaba’s Taobao, an e-commerce platform, the Financial Times reported. The country’s biggest developer will give discounts that match shoppers’ spending of up to Rmb2m ($325,000) on the eBay-like service. Homes in real estate developments in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing, among other cities, will qualify, according to an advertisement on Taobao’s website.