China’s bond market may have had a tricky year, with rising borrowing costs and a downturn in new issuance. But there’s one apparent bright spot—fewer bonds are going bad. The number of defaults on Chinese corporate bonds dropped to just 23 in the first half of the year, on debt worth a combined 18.7 billion yuan ($2.8 billion)—a drop in the ocean in a $4.9 trillion market, The Wall Street Journal reported. That’s down from 38 bonds worth 23.7 billion yuan in the first half of 2016, according to data provider WIND Info.

In a related story, Bloomberg News reported that China’s deleveraging campaign is taking on its toughest target yet: the public sector itself. While up to now policy makers have focused on a build-up of liabilities at smaller banks and big private-sector companies, President Xi Jinping has made clear that local government authorities and China’s behemoth state-owned enterprises too must restrain borrowing. Xi’s comments at a top financial-regulatory gathering last weekend were the latest signal of determination to head off any future destructive debt-bubble deflation.

Indian banks taking 12 of the country's largest defaulters to bankruptcy court under a central bank directive, will need to make additional provisioning of at least 180 billion rupees ($2.8 billion), India Ratings and Research said on Tuesday. India Ratings, an affiliate of Fitch Ratings, estimated the current average provisioning towards those 12 accounts at 42 percent, adding the extra provisioning needed would reduce the profits of creditor banks by about a quarter in the financial year to March 2018, Reuters reported.

More than 7 million Venezuelans went to the polls to vote against President Nicolas Maduro last weekend. But the more consequential opinion on Maduro's future may belong to China, Venezuela's biggest creditor and one of the few likely sources of funds needed to avert a possible default later this year, a Bloomberg View reported. The unofficial referendum, which was organized by the opposition, showed the depth of popular discontent with Maduro's plans to rewrite the constitution and enshrine himself in office. Turnout, at more than a third of registered voters, far exceeded expectations.

Azerbaijan’s biggest bank has begun preparations to be sold to private investors next year after completing a $3.3bn debt restructuring, according to its chairman.

India's Gujarat High Court on Monday dismissed Essar Steel India Ltd's appeal against a central bank order that asked creditor banks to start insolvency proceedings against the steelmaker, lawyers on the case said. The ruling is a boost to the government, which in May tweaked Indian banking laws to empower the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to tackle the country's bad debt issue, allowing the RBI for the first time to direct lenders to force defaulters into insolvency courts, Reuters reported.

China’s economy grew faster than expected in the second quarter, putting the nation on track to meet its growth target this year and giving backing to officials in their campaign to corral oncoming financial risk, Bloomberg News reported. Data showing that the world’s second-largest economy expanded 6.9 percent in the second quarter, matching the pace from the first three months, was released hours after the Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper warned of potential "gray rhinos" -- highly probable, high-impact threats that people should see coming, but often don’t.

Upmarket grocery chain Nosh has been placed in receivership, Companies Office records show. Damien Grant was appointed as a receiver on Friday. Before the receivership, staff were waiting to be paid wages and numerous creditors had ceased supplying the stores, The New Zealand Herald reported. Grant said it would be "very difficult" to get the stores back into trading. He was unable to provide detail on whether staff, creditors and landlords will be paid, saying he had yet to conduct a stocktake of the business.

Emboldened by the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance, the RBI is expected to push for resolution of bad loans worth around Rs. 8 lakh crore by March 2019, a move that could bring down the NPAs and improve the financial health of banks, a study by Assocham said, Firstpost reported. “So, it should be safe to assume that the non-performing assets (NPAs) mess would largely be resolved by the first quarter of financial year 2019-20,” Assocham study titled ’NPAs Resolution: Light at the end of tunnel by March 2019’ said.

China was supposed to be the loser after Moody's Investors Service lowered its rating on Chinese government debt for the first time since 1989, a Bloomberg View reported. The May 24 downgrade to A1 from Aa3 was widely reported as an ominous turn for the world's second-largest economy, whose credit was said to be deteriorating amid borrowing problems and slower growth.