Takata Corp.’s selection of a potential buyer will miss the year-end target as the shortlisted bidders need more time to review the air-bag maker pummeled by a record auto-safety recall of its products, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported. The successful bidder may be named in the January-to-March quarter, the people said, asking not to be identified as the negotiations are private. Takata and its financial adviser Lazard Ltd. have asked prospective buyers to complete the due diligence in February, two of the people said.

All 132 stores in the Payless Shoes network will close by February 2017, after administrators for the retail chain were unable to find a buyer for the business as a whole, SmartCompany.com.au reported. Administrators from Ferrier Hodgson said on Wednesday afternoon approximately 730 employees will be affected by the closures, although some employee contracts may be transferred to interested parties throughout the closure process. The administrators said they will now work with “interested parties and landlords” to transfer or close the Payless Shoes stores.

Early last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi summoned his cabinet to a room in India’s capital, told them to leave their cellphones outside and delivered a shocker: He was about to go on national television to declare that almost 90% of the country’s paper money would no longer be legal tender, The Wall Street Journal reported. The move, prepared in secret by Mr. Modi and his advisers, kicked off a radical experiment in government control and instantly put India at the forefront of a nascent global campaign against cash.

Turkey’s economy contracted for the first time in seven years during the third quarter, official data showed on Monday, as mounting uncertainties since a failed summer coup crimped domestic demand and devastated key industries like tourism. Gross domestic product in July through September shrunk by 1.8% annually, sinking deeper into negative territory than a 0.4% drop forecast by 10 economists in a Wall Street Journal survey and reversing Turkey’s resilient growth record since its latest decline in the third quarter of 2009.

To date, 1,019 debt-relief applications have been filed with the Insolvency Service, according to its chief George Karotsakis, Cyprus Mail reported. The service meanwhile has secured 56 court orders relieving debtors – and their guarantors – of unsecured loans of up to €25,000. Karotsakis was speaking to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), on the occasion of the 16 months since the introduction of the insolvency framework. As a result of the efforts, he said, the World Bank in its ‘Doing Business’ report currently ranks Cyprus 16th in resolving insolvencies.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced Thursday the creation of a $72 billion fund for local businesses, part of a spate of new government measures aimed at supporting the country’s economy and slumping currency, The Wall Street Journal reported. Turkey’s currency, the lira, has dropped 18% against the dollar this year and has traded at historical lows since early November. This has happened against the backdrop of the political uncertainty following a failed coup in mid-July and the imposition of a state of emergency.

The Reserve Bank of India unexpectedly left its main interest rate unchanged on Wednesday, citing global financial markets volatility, while it cut its growth forecast, in the first official assessment of a government decision to scrap most of the cash in circulation. The central bank’s monetary policy committee, headed by Gov. Urjit Patel, left the main interest rate unchanged at 6.25%. Four of five economists interviewed by The Wall Street Journal last week said they expected the RBI to cut its main rate by at least 0.25 percentage point.

Last year the reformist head of China’s central bank convinced his Communist party bosses to give market forces a bigger say in setting the renminbi’s daily “reference rate” against the US dollar, the Financial Times reported. In return, Zhou Xiaochuan assured his more conservative party colleagues that the redback would finally secure coveted recognition as an official reserve currency by the International Monetary Fund. Some people familiar with Mr Zhou’s sales pitch described it as a “Trojan horse” strategy because it wrapped difficult reforms in an alluring package.

The days when a Chinese iron ore miner could buy a UK video game developer are drawing to a close as Beijing tightens up on cross-border investment by its companies, the Financial Times reported. Investment banks in Asia have worked overtime this year on bringing an expansive range of acquisition targets to aggressive Chinese groups, many of which have strayed far beyond the acquirers’ original scope of business.

Sales of second-hand ships used to haul commodities such as iron ore, coal, grain and fertilizer have hit a seven-year high in 2016 as the industry creeps out of an eight-year downturn that has sunk several fleets of shippers, Reuters reported. Seaborne transport, which accounts for 85 percent of global trade, has seen a tentative recovery in the rates shippers charge to carry dry-bulk cargoes, which has encouraged buyers to jump at the bargain prices for second-hand vessels.