Asia Pacific

The amount of debt globally has soared more than 40 percent to $100 trillion since the first signs of the financial crisis as governments borrowed to pull their economies out of recession and companies took advantage of record low interest rates, according to the Bank for International Settlements, Bloomberg reported. The $30 trillion increase from $70 trillion between mid-2007 and mid-2013 compares with a $3.86 trillion decline in the value of equities to $53.8 trillion in the same period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Shanghai government has approved a city-owned investment company to buy non-performing loans from local banks, state media reported on Friday, becoming the latest Chinese local government bracing for an expected rise in bad debt, Reuters reported. Shanghai's launch of a dedicated "bad loan bank" follows similar moves by the wealthy eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Analysts expect a rise in bad loans in the coming years as China's economy slows, with loans to local governments and industries suffering from overcapacity a key source of concern.

A former deputy governor of Indonesia's central bank was charged Thursday with allegedly taking bribes and abusing power in a bank bailout, as corruption emerges as a top issue in coming elections, The Wall Street Journal reported. Budi Mulya denies any wrongdoing in the US$750 million bailout in 2008 of PT Bank Century, now called PT Bank Mutiara. "I understand all the sentences, but I don't understand the substance," Mr. Mulya said in his only comment after state prosecutors finished reading the charges for trial, which began Thursday and is expected to last three to six months.

Japan’s government said Bitcoin isn’t a currency amid calls for its regulation a week after the bankruptcy of Mt. Gox, the Tokyo-based exchange that was once the world’s biggest. There is no law to define Bitcoin and relevant ministries are gathering information on it, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet said in a statement in response to questions from an opposition party lawmaker. Bitcoin transactions can be taxed, according to the statement obtained by Bloomberg News. Japan isn’t the only country grappling with the regulation of Bitcoin.

One thing we can tell you about the Mt. Gox bankruptcy case: It won’t be like any other bankruptcy case you’ve seen, The Wall Street Journal MoneyBeat blog reported. MoneyBeat had a very enlightening and interesting talk with Christopher Mirick, a partner at the international law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, operating in the firm’s Insolvency & Restructuring practice.

Approximately one-fourth of listed Korean companies are on the brink of insolvency, BusinessKorea reported. Consulting firm AlixPartners held a press conference on March 4 at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul, saying that about 17 percent of the 1,600 or so companies it examined corresponded to On-Alert or a worse condition as of the end of the third quarter of 2013. AlixPartners used its own Corporate Distress Index, which considers the financial and stock price data of corporate entities, to obtain the analysis result.

China’s leaders spurred speculation they will allow the country’s $21 trillion debt mountain to inflate after refraining from cutting their annual economic-growth target, Bloomberg News reported. Analysts at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. and Nomura Holdings Inc. said authorities will need to loosen monetary policy, after Premier Li Keqiang yesterday announced a goal of 7.5 percent growth, the same target as last year. Li said China will seek an “appropriate” increase in credit.

The Cyprus parliament on Tuesday approved a slightly amended privatization bill, meeting a condition set by international creditors for the disbursement of fresh aid to the island, The Wall Street Journal reported. The vote came just days after parliament rejected an earlier version of the bill due to a split in the former governing coalition following the departure of junior partner, the Democratic Party, or Diko, from the government. Half of Diko's deputies abstained from last week's vote, denying the government the majority it needed to pass the bill.

China’s property trusts, grappling with repayments equivalent to the size of Puerto Rico’s economy, face rising default risks as a former central bank adviser dubs real estate the biggest threat to the economy, Bloomberg News reported. The trust funds must repay 634 billion yuan ($103 billion) of debt this year, up 50 percent from 2013, according to estimates from Haitong Securities Co., the nation’s second-biggest brokerage. The yield on the 2014 notes of Myhome Real Estate Development Group Co., based in the central city of Wuhan, jumped 185 basis points in the past year to 7.78 percent.

A sawmill company with about 400 employees and about $100 million in annual sales has been placed in receivership, Stuff.co.nz reported. Brendan Gibson and Michael Stiassny, of KordaMentha, were this afternoon appointed as receivers of Dunedin-headquartered Southern Cross Forest Products. The company has four sites in Mosgiel, Milton, Balclutha and Milburn around Dunedin and another site in Thames. In 2012, the last figures available, the company generated revenue of just under $95m.