Chinese borrowers are taking on record amounts of debt to repay interest on their existing obligations, raising the risk of defaults and adding pressure on policy makers to keep financing costs low, Bloomberg News reported. The amount of loans, bonds and shadow finance arranged to cover interest payments will probably rise 5 percent this year to a record 7.6 trillion yuan ($1.2 trillion), according to Beijing-based Hua Chuang Securities Co., whose lead fixed-income analyst was top-ranked by China’s New Fortune magazine in 2012 and 2013.

The Bank of Japan kept its monetary stimulus programme unchanged on Thursday, with Governor Haruhiko Kuroda holding fast to his view that the corporate capital expenditure vital to economic growth will pick up - suggesting that no new monetary easing is imminent, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The BOJ offered a slightly more cautious view on inflation expectations - or how the public perceives future price moves - than at last month's meeting, underscoring its concerns over a lack of success in nudging companies into boosting wages and investment.

The government has been preparing to preemptively restructure insolvent companies ahead of the anticipated interest rate hike by the U.S. central bank, and a new study showed that nearly 6 percent of Korean companies could need it, Korea JoongAng Daily reported. According to a report by private corporate analysis agency Korea CXO Institute, 117 of Korea’s 2,000 companies, excluding financial firms, have debt-to-asset ratios of over 200 percent and are also suffering from operating and net losses as of last year.

The Norwegian mining subsidiary of Australia's Northern Iron Ltd will file for bankruptcy on Wednesday as its $100 million debt has become unsustainable, Northern Iron told a new conference on Wednesday. Attempts to find new investors for the Sydvaranger Gruve AS mining firm, which has close to 400 employees, had also failed, it added. The two largest creditors were top Norwegian bank DNB and government investment agency Innovation Norway, Northern iron said.

Creditors of integrated steel producer Essar Steel Ltd may consider conversion of debt into equity under the strategic debt restructuring (SDR) route should the company not succeed in its attempt to monetize assets or bring on board a strategic investor, two people familiar with the matter said. The SDR scheme, introduced by the Reserve Bank of India in June, allows lenders to convert debt into majority equity holding and take over the management of a company. The bankers then have 18 months to find a suitable buyer.

Despite a sharp slowdown in economic growth and the stock market crash, consumers in China’s commercial capital have proven resilient, according to FT Confidential Research, a research service from the Financial Times. A survey of consumers across the city found they spent an average Rmb4,959 a month over the past 12 months, compared with Rmb1,737 across urban areas nationwide. They increasingly favour a quality meal and foreign goods, while nearly 70 per cent said they travelled abroad during the past 12 months. But cracks are appearing in the Shanghai consumer story.

The arrests or investigations targeting the finance industry in the aftermath of China’s summer market crash have intensified in recent weeks, creating a climate of fear among China’s finance firms and chilling their investment strategies. At least 16 people have been arrested, are being investigated or have been taken away from their job duties to assist authorities, according to statements and announcements compiled by Bloomberg News.

Japan, more than many other developed countries, needs everything to go right for its economy to grow, the International New York Times reported. Its population and work force are shrinking. Once-big industries like consumer electronics are retrenching under pressure from lower-cost rivals. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won power three years ago on a promise to accelerate Japan’s economic metabolism, but despite some notable successes — joblessness is low and many large companies are earning record profits — a broad increase in growth and incomes remains elusive.

Capital flowed into China last month for the first time since an unexpected currency devaluation in August shook investor confidence in the economy, easing fears over financial stability following an unprecedented bout of outflows, the Financial Times reported. Capital has exited China at a record pace this year as an economic slowdown pushed Chinese gross domestic product growth to its slowest pace in six years.

Japan has slid back into recession for the fifth time in seven years amid uncertainty about the state of the global economy, putting policymakers under growing pressure to deploy new stimulus measures to support a fragile recovery, The Guardian reported. The world’s third-largest economy shrank an annualised 0.8% in July-September, more than a market forecast for a 0.2% contraction, government data showed on Monday. That followed a revised 0.7% contraction in the previous quarter, fulfilling the technical definition of a recession which is two back-to-back quarterly contractions.