Asia Pacific

An international study of retirees shows Australians have been the hardest hit by the global financial crisis. The report by HSBC shows the crisis has caused the biggest drop in incomes for Australians entering retirement among the 15 countries surveyed. The reason is the big exposure that superannuation funds have to shares, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Average new-home prices in 70 Chinese cities rose faster in August than at any time since January 2011 despite government measures to keep property prices in check, spurred by strong home-buying in major cities, The Wall Street Journal reported. It was the seventh straight month of price increases compared with year-earlier levels, data released Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed. Month-on-month price gains also picked up, after moderating for the previous four months, signaling limited impact of the government's tightening measures.

A Chinese government researcher estimates that China's practices of borrowing heavily to fuel investment-driven growth have as much as doubled local government debt in just two years to around 20 trillion yuan ($3.3 trillion). The researcher, Liu Yuhui of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the current dependence on heavy borrowings to drive rapid economic growth is unsustainable. "My point is that there has been a notable rise in the overall government debt level over the past two years," Mr.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak returned to power this year with the help of a spending spree that boosted consumption. Now voters could feel the pinch as he tries to appease a different group: rating companies, Bloomberg reported. Najib’s government raised subsidized fuel prices for the first time since 2010 this month and has said it will delay some infrastructure projects, seeking to contain the budget gap and shore up the current account after Fitch Ratings cut Malaysia’s credit outlook to negative in July.

The International Monetary Fund has approved an 84.7 million-euro ($113 million) payout to Cyprus as part of the country's financial rescue, The New Zealand Herald reported on an Associated Press story. Cyprus' eurozone partners last week approved their part of the installment of bailout cash, amounting to 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion). They hailed the country for taking "decisive steps" to stabilize its banks, meet fiscal targets and take structural reforms.

Vikram Bakshi, the ousted managing director of Connaught Plaza Restaurants that runs McDonald's chain in North and East India, faces battle on another front with the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) moving to seize his assets after a loan default, the Economic Times reported. The government-backed lender has filed a case against Bakshi after he failed to meet payments on loans worth Rs 80 crore for his privatelyheld Ascot Hotels & Resorts, Noida, near New Delhi.

Japan is on a roll. Its economy is growing at a robust 3.8 percent, the stock market is up by 40 percent this year, and the country is on the cusp of overcoming 15 years of deflation. Adding to the positive trend, Tokyo just won its bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics, raising hopes of an investment and construction boom, the International Herald Tribune reported. What could possibly go wrong? A plan to raise taxes at the worst conceivable moment, economists warned. “It’s nonsense.

The owners of Sydney's Cross City Tunnel are blaming the New South Wales Government for the company having to be placed in voluntary administration, ABC News reported. Cross City Motorway, which is owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland, EISER Infrastructure and Leighton Contractors, was placed in voluntary administration on Friday. It could soon be the second time owners of the two-kilometre tunnel linking the western and eastern fringes of Sydney's CBD have gone into receivership.

Shares of India’s state-run banks are trading near record-low valuations as concern grows about narrowing risk buffers and rising bad loans, Bloomberg reported. Indian Bank, United Bank of India Ltd. and Union Bank of India, have fallen more than 55 percent this year to Sept. 12, the most among the nine government banks that are leading declines for India’s 40 bank stocks. Shares of the nine lenders are all trading below the value of their assets amid lower-than-average capital adequacy levels and bad loan ratios that are about double those of private-sector lenders.

Japan is considering a reduction in corporate income taxes as part of a stimulus package to cushion the economy from the planned increase in the sales levy, according to three people briefed on the matter, Bloomberg reported. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has instructed officials to discuss a cut in the tax on company profits as he weighs whether to proceed with an increase in the consumption levy in April, according to the people, who asked not to be named as the discussions aren’t public.