Asia Pacific

The Cypriot government, forced to impose capital controls as part of a 10 billion-euro ($13.6 billion) international aid program, may struggle to find a way to remove them, the country’s former finance minister said, Bloomberg reported. In March, Cyprus’s euro-area partners and the International Monetary Fund granted Cyprus the bailout in exchange for measures including a tax on bank deposits aimed at shrinking the Mediterranean island’s banking industry.

There has been no letup in the number of companies seeking debt recast with the Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) Cell in the July-September quarter, The Hindu Business Line reported. Tighter norms prescribed by lenders have not deterred companies from going in for CDR, as they are unable to service their debt. Weighing the companies down are slack demand, policy logjam coming in the way of project implementation and shortage of raw materials.

A small business accounting specialist is warning new bank lending restrictions which come into force today will make it tougher for people to buy, grow and fund small businesses, The New Zealand Herald reported. Matthew Bellingham, chairman of the public practice advisory board for the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants and a partner at Auckland firm Bellingham and Wallace, said new loan to value ratio restrictions would have "unintended consequences" on the sector.

The New Zealand government said it will pump up to NZ$155 million ($128 million) into Solid Energy and private lenders will swap some debt for equity under a plan to save the troubled coal miner, which is slated for partial privatization, Reuters reported. The proposed restructuring plan will see the state-owned company issue NZ$100 million of redeemable preference shares, with key lenders exchanging NZ$75 million of debt for equity and the government injecting NZ$25 million.

Three affiliates of embattled Tong Yang Group on Monday filed for court receivership as a last resort to avert bankruptcy after they failed to secure funds to keep afloat, the group said. South Korea's 38th-largest conglomerate said its three units -- Tongyang Inc., Tong Yang Leisure Co. and Tongyang International Inc. -- requested a court's order earlier in the day for a corporate revival process, Global Post reported on a Yonhap News Agency story.

Stimulus vs. debt reduction. That big question has tormented advanced economies in recent years, as they juggle attempts to lift sluggish growth with curbing unsustainable borrowing. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this week will try to have it both ways, The Wall Street Journal reported. Brushing off warnings that Japan's nascent economic recovery, stirred by his own package of bold stimulus policies, is still too delicate to withstand austerity measures, Mr.

When Choi Jong Hyun found his 50 million won ($46,415) annual salary wasn’t enough to cover the 8 percent jump in rent for his Seoul apartment, he decided to cut back on stock investments rather than take on debt. “I would rather cash out the stocks I now hold and not pay additional interest,” Choi, 32, who works in the financial industry and has about 50 million won of investments, said by phone on Sept. 24. Investors like Choi are exiting South Korea’s stock market as rental costs climb to the highest level since at least 1986 and household debt rises to a record.

Hundreds of depositors here have been trooping to the Rural Bank of Hagonoy Inc. in Barangay (village) Guihing in Hagonoy, Davao del Sur for two weeks now in the hopes of withdrawing their hard-earned money but went home without getting a centavo, The Inquirer reported. Loloy Diabordo, Hagonoy town information officer, said most of those wanting to withdraw money were small time depositors – mainly laborers or sari-sari store owners. “What greeted them was a large-sized notice that the bank is now under receivership by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.

India's central bank governor Raghuram Rajan may raise policy rates again after shocking markets by increasing them in only his first meeting, signalling he is willing to risk prolonging what is already the lowest economic growth in years in order to quash persistent inflation, Reuters reported. Raising the repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.50 percent as India stumbles through its worst economic crisis since 1991 puts pressure on New Delhi to relieve supply-side bottlenecks in the economy, such as poor infrastructure, that keep inflation high even when demand is soft.

New Zealand's banks have already started tightening up their lending criteria for customers seeking low-deposit mortgages, despite new regulations not kicking in until next month, The New Zealand Herald reported. The Reserve Bank's new rules, announced last month amid fears of a housing market meltdown, restrict banks in how much of their money they can lend to home buyers with less than 20 per cent deposit.