Asia Pacific

India’s central bank kept its benchmark rate unchanged, staying focused on inflation amid geopolitical tensions, but shifted its policy stance in a potential sign that the door to rate cuts is open, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Reserve Bank of India’s monetary-policy committee voted five to one to maintain the policy repo rate at 6.50%, Gov. Shaktikanta Das said Wednesday. The committee also decided unanimously to change the policy stance to neutral from a “withdrawal of accommodation,” he added.

After a late-September burst of policy announcements about economic revival and a news conference Tuesday to tout them, the Chinese stock-market roller coaster took a plunge on Wednesday. Beijing’s answer: plans for another news conference, the Wall Street Journal reported. This time, officials said that they were going to talk about “intensifying fiscal policy.” Analysts said that unless the message was reassuring, more wild turns were likely to follow.

New Zealand's central bank slashed rates by 50 basis points on Wednesday and said policy is still restrictive even though inflation has returned to target, prompting markets to bet on yet more aggressive easing and sending the kiwi dollar skidding, Reuters reported. “The Committee agreed that it is appropriate to cut the OCR (official cash rate) by 50 basis points to achieve and maintain low and stable inflation, while seeking to avoid unnecessary instability in output, employment, interest rates, and the exchange rate," the central bank said in its policy statement.

Japan saw the highest number of bankruptcies since 2013 in the six months through September, as companies were increasingly hit by rising costs, Bloomberg News reported. Some 4,990 firms went bankrupt in that period, increasing 18.6% from the previous year, according to a report by Teikoku Databank on Tuesday. The number of firms going under in Japan has continued to increase since the second half of the year ending March 2022. The jump in bankruptcies partly reflects the impact of higher prices, particularly for small companies.

China said it’s confident in reaching its economic targets this year and promised to further support growth, although it held back in unleashing more major stimulus in a disappointment to investors looking for more fuel for a world-beating stock rally, Bloomberg News reported. Officials in the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s economic planning agency, said Tuesday they would speed up spending while largely reiterating plans to boost investment and increase direct support for low-income groups and new graduates.

The Reserve Bank of Australia remains concerned about a resurgence in inflation, which is likely to prevent it from joining the global rush by central banks to lower interest rates, at least in the near term, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Bombay High Court on Friday directed the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) to release the transit rent of a cancer patient who vacated his premises in 2013, but had not been paid the transit rent for the last seven years as insolvency proceedings were initiated against the builder, Darshan Developer, the Free Press Journal reported.

China’s top economic planner will hold a press briefing on Tuesday to discuss a package of policies aimed at boosting economic growth, as investors look for more stimulus measures from President Xi Jinping’s government, Bloomberg News reported. The briefing, which is scheduled to start at 10 a.m., will include five senior officials from the National Development and Reform Commission, including Chairman Zheng Shanjie, according to a notice from the government on Sunday.

The Bank of Japan indicated it remains on track to consider more interest rate hikes by upgrading its assessments for two regional economies, while also offering little evidence of any need for immediate action, Bloomberg News reported. The BOJ raised it economic assessments for the Hokuriku and Tokai regions in its quarterly regional report Monday. In a separate release summarizing the views of branch managers who met to discuss the report, the bank said many reported widening perceptions among business leaders that wages need to keep rising next year.

Thailand’s Finance Ministry plans to propose a higher inflation target of 1.5%-3.5% for next year, adding pressure on the central bank to cut its key interest rate, Bloomberg News reported. The ministry is due to hold talks with the Bank of Thailand to finalize the price band later this month, the people said, asking not to be named as they aren’t authorized to discuss the information. The central bank and the Finance Ministry need to agree on the target before it’s sent to the Cabinet for approval.