Chinese economic expansion cooled to 7 per cent in the first quarter of this year, a figure that exceeded forecasts for a decline below the crucial 7 per cent threshold, but adding to fears that the world’s second biggest economy is facing difficulties, the Irish Times reported. The latest figure was better than the forecasts by multiple institutions that first-quarter growth would fall slightly below 7 per cent due to weak investment and demand.

Things have gone further south for Jones the Grocer Singapore (JTG), three months after the gourmet grocer from Down Under assured that it was business as usual, The Straits Times reported. The Singapore arm of the Louis Vuitton-backed Australian gourmet cafe and retail chain has been placed under judicial management, and its assets are now up for public sale.

The state of Jammu Kashmir is heading towards insolvency as its treasury is empty, The Tribune reported. About 50 per cent of the government employees, pensioners, daily wagers and casual labourers have not received salaries. “It is a grim situation and there are no chances of the money coming anytime soon,” said a source in the government. Sources confirmed that Rs 1,400 crore was released in March but that was exhausted to meet bills that were pending for months.

A company that shares its director with the Noggi Frozen Yogurt chain has entered voluntary administration, SmartCompany.au reported. Stewart Free and Bradd Morelli of Jirsch Sutherland were appointing administrators of SKS Partners on April 9. An investigation by SmartCompany has revealed SKS Partners has close ties with the franchised Noggi Frozen Yogurt chain, which was founded by John Suh in 2009 during the height of the frozen yoghurt craze in Australia.

Just months after resigning, the former head of the embattled Chinese property developer, the Kaisa Group, returned unexpectedly to the helm, raising doubts about whether the company’s rescue by a rival will move forward, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. The surprise comeback on Monday of the chairman and chief executive, Guo Yingcheng, is the latest twist in the Kaisa story. Once a darling of global investors, Kaisa started to stumble last fall, after the government blocked the sale of some of its properties in Shenzhen, its largest market.

Hebei Financing Investment Guarantee Group, the country’s second largest financing guarantee company has lost its ability to guarantee nearly 50 billion yuan worth of loans, signalling the spread of risk in the country’s financial system, The Australian reported. According to report from Caixin, the company is no longer in the position to guarantee loans, and scores of banks, trusts, brokers and funds are facing the prospect of a default on their loans. The company is a fully owned subsidiary of the Hebei provincial government.

China’s new development bank will strive to be corruption free, maintain environmentally sound policies and work with a streamlined bureaucracy, the interim head of the institution, Jin Liqun, said on Saturday, the International New York Times reported. “We are committed to building a lean, clean and green bank,” Mr. Jin told the Singapore Forum, a gathering of Asian business and political leaders.

The Bank of Japan stuck with its monetary stimulus program on Wednesday, brushing off a lack of inflation two years after it vowed to pull the economy out of more than a decade of falling prices, the International New York Times reported. As its initial deadline for stoking inflation passed, the central bank maintained that consumer prices were temporarily depressed by cheaper oil, and would gradually rise as consumers and businesses spent more and the economy recovered further.

A onetime restaurant chain that became the first Chinese company to default on the principal on its local debt could be a test of Beijing’s willingness to give market forces a greater role in the economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. In a statement on the Shenzhen stock exchange website on Tuesday, Cloud Live Technology Group Co. said it was short 240.6 million yuan ($39.2 million) needed to pay back 400 million yuan in debt it sold three years ago.

Cyprus freed capital flows on Monday, ending two years of controls that set an unwanted precedent for the euro zone at the height of the bloc's debt crisis, Reuters reported. The Mediterranean nation became the first and, to date, the only euro zone member to impose controls, acting to stem a flight of capital from its banks in March 2013. But with an incremental relaxation over the past 18 months, banks reported no unusual activity on Monday.