The proposed sale of a state-owned iron-ore port in Australia illustrates how quickly the slump in commodity prices has ground down the hopes that once accompanied the country’s resources boom, The Wall Street Journal reported. The lower house of Western Australia’s legislature last week approved plans to sell a long-term lease over the Utah Point port in the state’s Pilbara iron-ore mining region.

Moody’s, the ratings agency, has cut its outlook on China’s government credit to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’ on the back of a growing debt burden in the world’s second largest economy, and the challenges of reform, the Irish Times reported. In a report issued days before China’s leaders gather to approve the latest Five-Year Plan for the economy at the National People’s Congress, Moody’s uncertainty about Beijing’s capacity to implement widescale reforms to address imbalances in the economy.

Japan, the world’s most heavily indebted nation, is now getting paid to borrow. The Japanese government for the first time Tuesday issued benchmark 10-year bonds with negative yields, meaning it is effectively charging investors for the privilege of lending it money, The Wall Street Journal reported. That is the result of the topsy-turvy world of negative interest rates, which Japan entered earlier this year, when the country’s central bank began to charge lenders for holding some of their deposits, instead of paying them interest.

The Chinese central bank, says Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan, is “neither a god nor a magician.” He was responding, in a written interview published by financial magazine Caixin, to complaints that Chinese financial authorities lack the communications skills needed to calm international investors. After months of silence while global markets went into convulsions over uncertainty about China’s currency policies, Mr. Zhou said, “There is no way we can wipe out all uncertainties.” The defensiveness is understandable. Here’s the problem: Mr.

The former CEO of fraud scandal-hit Sino Forest Corporation has been named the chief restructuring officer (CRO) of China Fishery Group, according to the company. Paul Jeremy Bough was appointed CRO and executive director of Pacific Andes International Holdings (PAIH) owned China Fishery on Jan. 21 with effect from Feb. 26, according to a stock exchange alert from the company. From January 2013-April 2015, Bough was CEO and chairman of Emerald Plantation Holdings, parent of Sino Forest, which was accused of a major accountancy fraud in 2011 in a report from Muddy Waters Research.

China’s central bank is increasingly finding itself in a bind, balancing its need to continue easing credit to support economic growth against its stated goal of keeping the Chinese currency stable. Late Monday, the People’s Bank of China lowered the amount of deposits that banks must hold in reserve by 0.5 percentage point, freeing up an estimated 700 billion yuan ($107 billion) in funds for banks to make loans. The move marks a reversal in the central bank’s stance from two months ago, when it resisted using such aggressive easing tools for fear that they could weaken the yuan.

Beijing has mothballed two pioneering outbound investment schemes, according to people with knowledge of the situation, in its latest bid to stem capital outflows and shore up the renminbi. The halt in the allotment of quotas reflects fears over the massive amount of cash — some economists estimate up to $1tn last year — that has left the country through official and unofficial channels as economic growth slows and the renminbi continues to depreciate, the Financial Times reported.

Commodities trader Noble Group Ltd. on Thursday swung to a net loss of $1.67 billion for the 2015 fiscal year, its worst annual financial performance since its Singapore listing in 1997, largely due to an impairment charge related to its coal assets, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company’s performance is the latest sign of weakness in the commodities trading industry. Lower demand from China and a stubbornly slow pace of recovery in the global economy have hit companies like Noble, which make their money as middlemen between producers and consumers of commodities.

Officials from China’s central bank are urging Beijing to tolerate a sharply higher fiscal deficit to help stabilize growth, in an acknowledgment that a reliance on cheap bank loans has run its course as a way to boost the economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. The call comes as central bankers and finance ministers from the Group of 20 major economies are gathering in Shanghai to discuss new solutions to support global growth, including a focus on fiscal expansion and long-term overhaul rather than credit-driven growth.

Bankrupt consumer electronics retailer Dick Smith Holdings Ltd will close down its remaining 363 stores in Australia and New Zealand after failing to find a buyer, receivers and managers of the company said on Thursday, Reuters reported. "Unfortunately the sale process has not resulted in any acceptable offers for the group as a whole or for Australia or New Zealand as standalone businesses," receiver James Stewart said in a statement.