China sees signs economic growth is recovering but is watching closely to determine whether it needs to expand its huge stimulus effort as global conditions worsen, top economic officials said Friday. Zhang Ping, the chairman of the country's planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission, and central bank Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan said positive data showed Beijing's policies were working.

Foreign lenders that rushed into China in recent years are watching nervously as a number of companies there teeter on the brink of insolvency. Their worry: The nation's bankruptcy laws may leave them with virtually nothing, The Wall Street Journal reported. Several big Western investors--Citigroup Inc., hedge-fund manager Citadel Investment Group LLC, Credit Suisse Group and CLSA Capital Partners--are seeking to get back between $100 million and $200 million in loans extended to a Chinese steelmaker, according to people familiar with the matter.

The world waited with bated breath on Thursday for a beefed-up China stimulus that did not come, but the non-news should generate more a sense of relief than disappointment, Reuters reported. Relief that Beijing thinks its policies are hitting the mark, that the economy is getting back on its feet--and that it has the fiscal power to give an extra push, though only if needed.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao may announce new stimulus measures tomorrow, adding to a 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) spending plan as the government tries to revive growth in the world’s third-biggest economy, Bloomberg reported. Wen will announce “a new stimulus package” in his annual address to the nation’s legislature, former statistics bureau head Li Deshui told reporters in Beijing.

Edward Harman, the New Zealand man behind a string of failed investments involving a coterie of well-known business people, has been bankrupted as concerns emerge over the liquidation of his companies, The National Business Review reported. Mr Harman was declared bankrupt last week in the High Court at Auckland, as the result of a creditor’s petition. He is the director of five companies placed into voluntary liquidation last July: Fairthorne Investments, Fairthorne Trading, Fairthorne Ventures, Paeroa Investments and Wake Investments.

The New Zealand government says it had no reason to believe that Mascot Finance would fail when it granted it a taxpayer-funded deposit guarantee in January, The Press reported. Questions over whether the Crown should have given Mascot Finance a guarantee arose after if it went into receivership seven weeks after getting a guarantee. How big the bill to the taxpayer will be from Mascot is unclear. Receivers Deloitte say it is too early to say whether Mascot's assets outweigh its liabilities.

The brutal slew of layoffs in the legal industry continued Tuesday, with Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP announcing it would let go 300 associates and staff in the United States, Asia and Europe, and DLA Piper slashing 54 lawyers and support staff in Asia in light of the continuing worldwide economic crisis. Orrick said the move was necessary due to the world economic crisis “and the impact of that crisis on our clients and the levels of activity in the world market.” It said the layoffs were unrelated to performance and affected attorneys and staff throughout its offices and practices.

Tritec Manufacturing’s UK subsidiary Mountain Buggy UK has had all its European assets frozen by a Dutch bank after Denmark-based company DK Intertrade alleged the pushchair manufacturer had breached a contract, The National Business Review reported. The Danish distribution company was in court in New Zealand last week in a bid to get compensation as it believes Mountain Buggy breached a distribution contract. The company had already asked the Dutch court to freeze the assets of the UK subsidiary.

A receiver has been appointed to one of New Zealand's most prolific TV companies, Ninox Television, maker of shows including Location, Location, Location and Sensing Murder, The New Zealand Herald reported. Receiver Stephen Lawrence of PKF Insolvency and Recovery declined to give details about the company and the status of creditors. A Ninox director, John McEwan, said the receivership was part of a restructuring exercise and did not affect the operations of the company.

A New York private-equity group, KPS Capital Partners LP, agreed to buy the Irish and U.K. operations of Waterford Wedgwood PLC, the historic ceramics-and-crystal maker that was placed in a form of bankruptcy in January, The Wall Street Journal reported. The deal was announced by accounting firm Deloitte LLP, which has been trying to sell the company since it was placed in administration Jan. 5 after years of heavy losses under its former chairman and major shareholder, Irish businessman Sir Anthony O'Reilly.