Asia Pacific

China's property prices fell for the fourth straight month in December, adding further pressure on Chinese consumers at a time when both the domestic and global economy increasingly depend on their spending, The Wall Street Journal reported. The property slump has triggered a slowdown in sales growth of goods ranging from furniture to refrigerators. Investment in residential real estate accounts for about 12% of China's economy, but as much as 25% is tied up in a broader category that also includes industries such as construction materials and appliances, according to economists.

South Korea's Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Tuesday that it will continue studying ways to reduce the economic risk posed by rapid capital flows in and out of the country, as growing concerns about the euro zone stoke fear of another global economic shock, The Wall Street Journal reported. Vice Finance Minister Shin Je-yoon said at a briefing Monday that the bond market and interbank lending market are two key areas for additional policy consideration.

China's Jade Cargo International Company Ltd. said Saturday that it had temporarily grounded its fleet of six Boeing 747 freighter planes because of weak demand, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The joint venture between a unit of carrier Air China Ltd. and Deutsche Lufthansa AG is the latest victim of the slowdown in air cargo traffic from China as customers pare orders because of the wider uncertainty over the global economy.

The “Buffett tax” will affect very few this year as just 0.17 percent of taxpayers reported in 2010 that they made enough to be affected by the newly-introduced highest rate, the tax agency said Tuesday, The Korea Times reported. The National Assembly passed a revised bill last week that allows a collected 38-percent tax rate from those who earn 300 million won ($270,000) or more annually. It has been dubbed the Buffett tax after Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett, who suggested the U.S. government raise the tax rate of rich people like him.

One of the biggest public-housing projects in history will help determine whether China can remake its real-estate sector fast enough to prevent its economy from flaming out, The Wall Street Journal reported. China is in the midst of a crash program to build 36 million subsidized apartments by the end of 2015—enough units to house the entire population of Germany.

A savings bank undergoing a normalization plan was found to have extended loans to applicants using borrowed names, the financial watchdog said Monday, The Korea Times reported. As the grace period for six secondary lenders that survived the government’s mass suspension in September last year and have pushed for normalization ended last month, the financial authorities are expected to shortly come up with a clearing list. There are growing concerns that the fallout of last year’s savings bank scandal that hit domestic financial markets hard is likely to continue in the new year.

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., India’s biggest sport-utility vehicle manufacturer, is interested in buying at least parts of bankrupt Swedish carmaker Saab Automobile, two people familiar with the situation said, Bloomberg reported. Mahindra, based in Mumbai, is in the process of trying to set up meetings with the two court-appointed administrators who are overseeing Saab’s bankruptcy to possibly buy parts of the carmaker or the whole company, said the people, who declined to be identified because the plans are private.

India failed to adopt its long-awaited anticorruption legislation, a major embarrassment to the government that had promised to address an issue that has scared away foreign investors and brought waves of protesters into the streets, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had pledged to pass a bill to create a federal corruption watchdog by the end of 2011 after public protests this summer over pervasive graft destabilized the government.

Japan's ruling party compromised on a plan to double the sales tax by 2015 to help reduce the world’s largest public debt, delaying implementation by six months to help lawmakers meet a campaign pledge, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The proposal by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda would raise the sales tax from 5 percent to 8 percent in April 2014 and to 10 percent in October 2015. The agreement, reached late yesterday, must be approved by a government panel led by Finance Minister Jun Azumi before discussion with the opposition.

Thailand's government will today press the central bank chief to take on $35 billion of legacy debt from bank bailouts as Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra looks for fiscal scope to finance flood defenses, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Bank of Thailand Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul meets with cabinet members in Bangkok over the proposal to shift the debt to the BOT's balance sheet.