Japan’s credit rating could be in the cross hairs after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indicated the nation may abandon its goal of covering key expenditures through taxes, Bloomberg News reported. The cost of insuring Japan’s government debt against default rose to a 15-month high on Tuesday, with policy uncertainty adding to concerns about tensions with North Korea. On Monday, Abe said he would dissolve parliament later this week and he’d pay for economic measures with funds from a consumption-tax increase originally intended to rein in the nation’s swollen debt.

India’s top iron ore miner NMDC Ltd. is looking to sell a stake of at least 49 percent in its Chhattisgarh steel plant, as it prepares to begin production at the 3-million-ton facility in three to six months, according to a company official. The state-run miner is seeking a partner for its first steel venture, which has been eight years in development, to infuse working capital and provide steel-making expertise, the official said Monday, declining to be named in line with company policy, Bloomberg News reported. NMDC has appointed an adviser to help find an investor, the official said.

India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley goaded companies to boost investments as businesses bruised by a slowing economy and falling returns defer spending, Bloomberg News reported. Speaking at the Bloomberg India Economic Forum in Mumbai, Jaitley and Amitabh Kant, the chief executive officer at Niti Aayog, the nation’s economic think-tank, called for more private spending from local companies and said the banking system must get healthier to support that investment. Jaitley told companies that there’s “no need to panic,” while R.

S&P Global Ratings cut China’s sovereign credit rating for the first time since 1999, citing the risks from soaring debt, and revised its outlook to stable from negative, Bloomberg News reported. The sovereign rating was cut by one step, to A+ from AA-, the company said in a statement late Thursday. The analysts also lowered their rating on three foreign banks that primarily operate in China, saying HSBC China, Hang Seng China and DBS Bank China Ltd. would be unlikely to avoid default should the nation default on its sovereign debt.

Banks that provided a $4.75 billion loan to Turk Telekomunikasyon AS’s major shareholder hired Lazard Ltd. to advise them on the nation’s biggest ever default, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The creditors also hired Raiffeisen Investment AG to advise in negotiations over the loan taken out by Ojer Telekomunikasyon AS, or Otas, which owns 55 percent of Turk Telekom, Bloomberg News reported. Other parties to the talks are the Turkish Treasury, which also has a stake in the company, and Saudi Telecom Co., which indirectly owns shares, the people said.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) committee tasked with making a ruling on the tussle over Noble Group’s credit-default swaps has issued a verdict that could halt attempts to settle the derivatives contracts bilaterally, the Financial Times reported. In a statement on Tuesday, the committee – which is made up of representatives of banks and investors – said that attempts to trigger the contracts bilaterally are only valid if backed up with supporting documentation.

Deng Xiaoping, the former Communist leader credited with opening China’s economy to the world, described his approach to reforms as “crossing the river by feeling the stones.” That philosophy continues to influence policy makers in Beijing as they gradually open the nation’s bond market to foreign investors, Bloomberg News reported. The liberalization has potential to be the biggest of its kind and significantly impact the flow of international capital.

If only investors in shipping had the equivalent of a mariner’s tide tables. They can see where the low water mark in share prices lies, but must divine for themselves how high the waters might now rise. In this particular cycle, the ebb lasted a long time after container lines ordered too many ships and then struggled to fill them. The low point was probably last autumn, when Korean line Hanjin filed for bankruptcy, the Financial Times reported. The market has improved markedly since then. Industry volume growth is expected to hit 5 per cent this year, from 3.8 last year.

In late June, one of India’s top wind power equipment makers, Inox Wind Ltd, was dragged into insolvency courts by a logistics handler over unpaid dues of $88,000, Reuters reported. Two weeks on, the matter was settled, with dues paid off. The case illustrates how small creditors and vendors, previously at the mercy of large debtors, are now using India’s new bankruptcy code as a pressure ploy to secure payment of dues that would earlier have been all but impossible to recover.

Shares in Reliance Communications fell as much as 2.3 percent in early trading on Thursday, a day after the Indian arm of Ericsson filed a petition seeking to drag the debt-laden telecom firm into insolvency due to unpaid dues, Reuters reported. The Swedish telecoms equipment maker, which signed a seven-year deal in 2014 to operate and manage Reliance Communications’ nationwide network, is seeking a total of 11.55 billion rupees ($180 million) from the company and two of its subsidiaries. Reliance Communications, widely known as RCom, reported its third quarterly loss in a row last month.