China’s economy is showing signs of stability, a welcome break for both investors and a leadership that has spent much of 2016 battling economic headwinds. But it is an engineered calm that comes at a cost, say economists, The Wall Street Journal reported. Over the past month, gauges such as industrial production and fixed-asset investment were surprisingly robust. Imports rose for the first time in nearly two years and strong property sales in large cities helped prop up demand for steel and cement. “The data is ticking along,” said Chris Weston, chief strategist at IG Markets Ltd.

Hanjin Shipping’s biggest shareholder and lead creditor are to provide funding to pay for the unloading of cargo from dozens of ships stranded at sea after the Korean company collapsed into bankruptcy, The Guardian reported. An estimated $14bn of cargo was trapped on Hanjin ships when the world’s seventh-largest container carrier collapsed late last month, creating havoc before the holiday shopping season. Korea Development Bank (KDB), Hanjin’s lead creditor, will offer a 50bn won (£35m) credit line.

The explosive growth of spending overseas by Chinese tourists dwarfs the increase in the number of Chinese traveling abroad. The most likely reason? Disguised capital outflows, Bloomberg News reported. So says former U.S. Treasury official Brad Setser, who drilled into the spending data provided by some of the most popular destinations for Chinese travelers.

According to the Chinese business publication Caixin, the first of China's massive state-owned organizations has collapsed under the weight of $2.2 billion worth of bad debt in China's interbank bond market. The company, Guangxi Nonferrous Metals Group, filed for bankruptcy nine months ago but only got approval from the Chinese government to go bankrupt a few days ago. This is different from other Chinese bankruptcies. It's the first company in China's superliquid, over-the-counter interbank market to go bust.

Mainboard-listed Marco Polo Marine said on Thursday (Sept 22) there may be a "substantial doubt about the group's ability to continue as a going concern", The Straits Times reported. Its statement to the Singapore Exchange accompanied its launch of an exercise seeking consent from bond holders to delay repayment by three years of notes worth S$50 million that are due next month. Noteholders are asked to vote on the company's debt restructuring proposal at a meeting on Oct 14.

Korea Development Bank (KDB), the lead creditor of Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd is considering lending about 50 billion won (34.51 million pounds) to help unload stranded cargo, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Thursday, Reuters reported. An estimated $14 billion of cargo was trapped on Hanjin ships when the world's seventh-largest container carrier collapsed late last month, creating havoc ahead of the crucial holiday shopping season.

The Bank of Japan plunged into an approach to monetary policy unseen in decades, introducing a target for 10-year interest rates in its latest bid to restart economic growth, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Japanese central bank, which has struggled for nearly two decades to bring about steady inflation, said Wednesday it wants to keep the yield on 10-year Japanese government bonds at zero, and will adjust the pace of its bond buying as needed to achieve that.

China's listed property developers issued 960 billion yuan (110.8 billion pounds) in bonds as of Sept. 19, more than three times the amount in the same period last year, financial magazine Caixin reported, citing data from WIND, a Chinese financial data provider. "At this pace, there is no suspense that bond sales by property developers would reach over 1 trillion yuan ($149.91 billion) this year," the report said. The report attributed the rise to easier access, low interest rates, encouraging property policies and a lack of other investment channels.

The South Korean court overseeing Hanjin Shipping's receivership said a rehabilitation plan is "realistically impossible" if top priority debt such as backlogged charter fees exceed 1 trillion won ($896 million), South Korea's Yonhap newswire reported on Wednesday. Hanjin Shipping, the world's seventh-largest container carrier, filed for receivership late last month in a South Korean court and must submit a rehabilitation plan in December.

Shares in Takata fell 12 per cent on Tuesday as investors feared that a bankruptcy option could be part of the restructuring package being compiled for the Japanese manufacturer at the centre of a global safety scandal, the Financial Times reported. The sharp sell-off on Tuesday followed a report by Bloomberg that several bidders for Takata have not ruled out some form of bankruptcy proceedings to mitigate the liabilities.