Australia's central bank on Tuesday left its cash rate steady as widely expected but took a small step towards further easing in a policy meeting dominated by risks of a global trade war, Reuters reported. Wrapping up its April policy meeting, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) held interest rates steady at 4.1%, having just cut them by a quarter point in February for the first time in over four years. "Monetary policy is well placed to respond to international developments if they were to have material implications for Australian activity and inflation," the board said in a statement.

Australian retail sales rose modestly for a second straight month in February as a long-awaited cut in interest rates combined with slower inflation to boost consumer sentiment and spending power, Reuters reported. However, the recovery in consumer spending is still tepid, suggesting consumers remain cautious and would not be a bar to more policy easing. The Australian dollar was steady at $0.6241 and three-year bond futures were little changed at 96.31.

China is willing to buy more Indian products to balance trade, Beijing’s Ambassador Xu Feihong said just ahead of a US tariff announcement expected to hit the south Asian neighbors, Bloomberg News reported. “We are willing to work with the Indian side to strengthen practical cooperation in trade and other areas, and to import more Indian products that are well-suited to the Chinese market,” the ambassador to India was quoted as saying by China’s state-run Global Times, in a story posted Monday.

The rising trend of Malaysians declaring bankruptcy voluntarily is becoming a growing concern, signaling that many are struggling with severe financial difficulties, the New Straits Times reported. In recent years, more people have opted to declare themselves bankrupt through a Debtor's Petition, a legal process filed in court to protect themselves from excessive creditor claims. Insolvency Department director-general Datuk M Bakri Abd Majid revealed that self-declared bankruptcy cases surged by 200 per cent, with 330 cases recorded in 2024, compared to 181 in 2023 and 116 in 2022.

Bombay high court said the developer cannot use the insolvency law as a tool to escape the consequences of failure to execute a slum rehabilitation scheme fully and can be removed by the SRA—Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), the Times of India reported. Builder’s appointment can be terminated despite a resolution plan (RP) in place under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) proceedings, the HC said, except it cannot be done to recover “prior debts’’.

Japanese banks may need to offer business turnaround support to companies hit by tariffs imposed by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, the head of the country's banking lobby said, Reuters reported. Many large Japanese firms, including major exporters and manufacturers, are grappling with U.S. duties on imports of steel and aluminium and a 25% tariff on imported cars and light trucks starting this week. "We think tariffs could lead to a deterioration in corporate earnings," the new chair of the Japan Banks Association, Junichi Hanzawa, told Reuters in an interview.

Japan, South Korea and China agreed on Sunday to continue trilateral economic and trade cooperation to address “emerging challenges,” a partnership that has become more crucial than ever as the U.S. trade war shatters the global order. Trade minister Yoji Muto, his South Korean counterpart, Ahn Duk-geun, and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met in Seoul for the first trilateral meeting among the three countries’ trade ministers in over five years, the Japan Times reported.

Activity in China’s vast manufacturing sector expanded at the fastest pace in a year in March, sending another sign of green shoots in the world’s second-largest economy as policymakers brace for more U.S. tariffs this week, the Wall Street Journal reported. The official manufacturing purchasing managers index for March came in at 50.5, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday. That beat February’s mark of 50.2 as a reading above 50 suggests an expansion in activity while one below suggests contraction.