Asia Pacific

The economic slowdown weighing on both China and Europe may test Beijing's tolerance for a more flexible currency, thus creating competing policy interests for both regions, Dow Jones reported. Thursday's grim Chinese and euro-zone manufacturing data underscored how synchronized the world's largest economies have become. The 17-nation currency zone is widely expected to see a recession this year, which has bolstered forecasts for a weaker euro. Yet China has, at least for now, become the bigger worry.

The Chinese government has begun making it much easier for foreign investors to put money into China’s stock market and other financial investments, in a slight relaxing of more than a decade of tight capital controls, the International Herald Tribune reported. The move, not publicly announced but disclosed by some private money managers, indicates that Chinese officials are eager to counter a rising flight of capital from the country, a worsening slump in real estate prices, a weak stock market and at least a temporary trade deficit caused by a steep bill for oil imports.

Humpuss Sea Transport Pte Ltd., a Singapore-based unit of an Indonesian shipping company, filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the U.S., Bloomberg reported. The unit of Jakarta-based PT Humpuss Intermoda Transportasi is already under the control of liquidators in Singapore, where it was incorporated in 1996, according to Monday’s filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Debt and assets were listed at more than $100 million.

Elpida Memory Inc., the last Japanese maker of computer-memory chips, sought protection from creditors in the U.S. as it pursues a bankruptcy case in Japan. The Tokyo-based chipmaker filed court papers today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, listing more than $1 billion in assets and debt. It asked the court to recognize the Japanese case as the main bankruptcy proceeding. Chapter 15 of the bankruptcy code allows foreign companies reorganizing abroad to protect their assets from creditors and lawsuits in the U.S.

Six out of 10 families in Seoul are indebted with the mountain of debt owed by households surpassing 200 trillion won (about $178 billion) last year, official figures showed Sunday, The Korea Times reported. According to the Seoul Development Institute (SDI), a think tank operated by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the capital’s households owed more than 204 trillion won to financial companies as of last November, which represented an annual 4.8 percent rise. About 60.9 percent of the households were in debt at the end of December, up 0.8 percent from the third quarter.

More Asian governments are pressing businesses to hike wages as a way to prevent outbreaks of labor unrest, raising the specter of higher manufacturing costs for global companies—and the products they sell world-wide, The Wall Street Journal reported. In the latest move, Malaysia's cabinet has approved the country's first-ever minimum wage to be imposed soon, according to people familiar with the matter.

Units of Berlian Laju Tanker, Indonesia’s largest oil and gas shipping group, filed for Chapter 15 creditor protection in a US bankruptcy court early Wednesday morning, The Jakarta Globe reported on a Reuters story. The company’s units have listed assets and liabilities in the $50 million to $100 million range, according to a filing with the US bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York. Under US bankruptcy laws, Chapter 15 grants a foreign company protection from creditors looking to seize its assets in the country.

The Bank of Japan said Tuesday it will stoke the economy with an additional ¥2 trillion ($24.32 billion) in lending, following a surprise monetary easing at its last meeting as it heightens its drive to rid the economy of debilitating deflation, The Wall Street Journal reported. "We came up with the measure as part of a package" to deal with deflation along with the credit-easing move last month, BOJ Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa said at a news conference following a two-day meeting of the bank's policy board.

Royal Bank of Scotland and former directors including ex-chief executive Fred Goodwin and ex-chairman Sir Tom McKillop have been hit with a £2.4 billion ($4.6 billion) legal claim from angry investors in the taxpayer bailed-out bank, The New Zealand Herald reported. RBOS Shareholders Action Group was due to deliver claims letters to the bank and 17 former directors, including the former head of investment banking Johnny Cameron.

Households are spending more of their post-tax income on food than at any time since the mid-2000s as stagnant wages and high inflation squeezes living standards, official figures show. The poorest 20 percent of families spent 20.7 percent of their disposable income on food last year, the highest since the same level was reached in 2005, according to data from Statistics Korea Monday, The Korea Times reported. The average household spent 14.18 percent of its disposable income on food last year, the highest since 14.61 percent measured six years earlier.