Asia Pacific

Shareholders in Bank of Cyprus elected a new board of directors amid noisy protests by uninsured depositors who lost a significant portion of their savings through an unprecedented bail-in agreed with the EU and International Monetary Fund in March, the Financial Times reported. Angry Cypriots attending an extraordinary general meeting of BoC shareholders complained over a reduction in the nominal value of the bank’s shares from one euro to one cent in a mandatory recapitalisation overseen by an interim board of directors. Dozens of shareholders walked out of the meeting in protest.

Australian employers unexpectedly cut payrolls in August as weaker demand discouraged hiring, underscoring the challenge for Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott to boost the nation’s economy. The local currency declined. The number of people employed fell by 10,800 from the previous month, when it declined by a revised 11,400, the statistics bureau said in Sydney today. That compares with the median estimate for a 10,000 increase in a Bloomberg News survey of 28 economists. The jobless rate rose to 5.8 percent from 5.7 percent.

Investors have made billions betting against economies in which debt is rising and home prices are soaring. They have had particular success targeting the banks that fund these booms. Right now, their target is China, The Wall Street Journal reported. Some compare China to the U.S. in 2007. Others cite Japan before the 1989 real-estate bust. China bulls acknowledge the risks but say the government has the money and expertise to defuse the problems.

In an effort to improve the country’s woeful infrastructure, long seen as a drag on Asia’s third-largest economy, India Inc. has pumped billions of dollars into new power plants, roads, rail lines and airports over the past decade. The investment was largely financed with foreign-denominated debt, a choice that seemed reasonable enough as recently as 2010, when the Indian economy expanded by 9.3 percent in real terms and the rupee remained relatively strong. But it doesn’t seem so reasonable anymore, The Financialist reported.

Cyprus is having its worst economic downturn since the 1970s and that's bad news not only for Cypriots but also for Germans and other eurozone members, United Press International reported. Fears over what German taxpayers may have to do next to bail out Greece are already an election issue as German Chancellor Angela Merkel seeks a third term in Berlin's Bundestag parliament elections Sept. 22. Greek and Cypriot economies are so interlinked that Greek economic troubles are seen behind the crisis that forced Cyprus to seek EU help in return for a crushing austerity program.

Leaders of the world’s largest economies ratcheted up the pressure on tax avoidance by backing “an ambitious and comprehensive” plan to crack down on multinationals that shift profits into low-tax countries, the Irish Times reported. The G20 countries also stepped up the assault on evasion, with plans to exchange tax information automatically between themselves by the end of 2015 and calling “on all other jurisdictions to join us by the earliest possible date”.

China's central bank signaled it is considering speeding up the loosening of controls on investment flows in and out of China, indicating determination to press ahead with financial reform despite growing financial risks, The Wall Street Journal reported. With a stable economy, healthy banking system and an exchange rate "approaching balance," the timing is right for China to push capital-account opening, wrote Sheng Songcheng, head of the central bank's statistics department in an article in the central bank's own Financial News Thursday.

For more than two decades, Australia's economy has avoided recession, fed by a mining boom that forged one of the world's richest societies. Now, that once-in-a-generation expansion—stoked by China's demand for Australia's natural resources—could be coming to a close, The Wall Street Journal reported. As China's economic engine slows, sending prices for iron ore and coal sharply lower, Australia is facing an economic dislocation, with unemployment rising to a 12-year high and growth slowing rapidly.

Fears are rising for the health of India’s banking system as slowing economic growth and rapid currency depreciation threaten to worsen asset quality and reduce demand for bank credit from large industrial companies, the Financial Times reported. Non-performing and restructured loan levels in Asia’s third-largest economy have risen steadily over the past year to stand at about 9 per cent of assets and could reach 15.5 per cent over the next two years, according to Morgan Stanley.

Aston Metals Ltd., a mining exploration company owned by Nathan Tinkler, was placed in receivership as the latest piece of the former billionaire’s empire in Australia to be offered for sale to repay creditors, Bloomberg reported. John Park and Quentin Olde of FTI Consulting Inc. were appointed as receivers in Australia, according to a statement from the West Palm Beach, Florida-based company. Madison Pacific Trust Ltd., representing funds that hold Aston notes, named Park and Olde, according to an e-mail from FTI.