Asia Pacific

Singapore Airlines has asked its captains to volunteer for unpaid leave amid a global economic slowdown that has dented long-haul travel demand, the airline says. The move came nearly a year after the company - considered a bellwether for the full-service airline industry - made a similar offer to its first officers, The New Zealand Herald reported. The airline has also frozen its intake of cadet pilots as part of a slew of cost-cutting measures.

Global regulators gave banks four more years and greater flexibility on Sunday to build up cash buffers so they can use some of their reserves to help struggling economies grow. The pull-back from a draconian earlier draft of new global bank liquidity rule to help prevent another financial crisis went further than banks had expected by allowing them a broader range of eligible assets.

India’s record current-account deficit threatens to weigh on the rupee and curb the magnitude of interest-rate cuts forecast to begin this month in support of government policies seeking faster growth, Bloomberg News reported today. The shortfall swelled to $22.31 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30, the widest in Reserve Bank of India data beginning 1949. The rupee is down 6.1 percent against the dollar in the past three months, fanning price gains that will limit Governor Duvvuri Subbarao to a 25 basis-point rate cut on Jan.

China's average home prices rose in December, ending eight straight months of year-on-year declines, signaling the country's property market is recovering from its lengthy slump, the Wall Street Journal reported today. A survey of property developers and real estate companies showed the average price of housing in 100 Chinese cities rose by a modest 0.03 percent in December from a year earlier, data provider China Real Estate Index System said Friday.

China has issued a fresh warning to its local governments to control risk and stop using unauthorized fundraising methods to pay for the building of infrastructure and other projects, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The finance ministry, in a statement jointly issued with other government agencies and published on its website Monday, said there has been an increase of unauthorized funds by local governments and reiterated existing restrictions on the use of leasing, trust, and build-and-transfer arrangements to pay for public works.

Singapore’s economy grew in the past three months of 2012, avoiding an expected recession as services put in a strong showing and gross domestic product figures for the first three quarters of the year were revised downwards, Reuters reported today. Singapore, whose trade is equal to about three times its G.D.P., has been badly hit by the weakness in Western economies, which has crimped demand for many of its exports. The city-state’s electronic manufacturers have also failed to tap surging demand for smartphones, unlike rivals in South Korea and Taiwan.

Japan's new finance minister upped the ante in the country's war of words against the strong yen, lashing out at the U.S. and Europe for letting their currencies weaken dramatically and calling on the U.S. to strengthen the dollar, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The tirade from Taro Aso, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's point person on currency strategy, underscores the increasingly pugnacious stance of the fledgling Abe government against what it sees as a global trend of currency devaluations.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc won dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Seoul-based Woori Bank over losses from investments in collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) tied to the housing market, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. A federal judge in New York ruled yesterday that the South Korean lender failed to present a strong enough case against RBS. Woori Bank had alleged that it was duped into investing $80 million in CDOs that were exposed to risk from the subprime housing market, according to the order filed today by U.S. District Judge Harold Baer.

Japan’s new finance minister, Taro Aso, sought yesterday to quell concern about the country's weak finances, saying that the government would not rely solely on debt to fund economic stimulus and would try to limit new debt issuance during the next fiscal year, Reuters reported yesterday. The government will compile spending requests for a stimulus package on January 7 and finalize the proposal shortly thereafter as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tries to speed enactment of his agenda of increased public works spending to lift the economy.

Euro-zone member state Cyprus badly needs a bailout, but the International Monetary Fund is demanding a debt haircut first, according to media report, Spiegel Online reported. The resulting standoff with Europe has delayed the country's badly needed aid package. To ward off insolvency, Nicosia has raided the pension funds of state-owned companies. Cyprus did its part on Wednesday night. The country's parliament approved a 2013 budget which included far-reaching austerity measures so as to satisfy the conditions for the impending bailout of the debt-stricken country.