Asia Pacific

Indonesia’s central bank kept interest rates on hold for a fourth straight meeting, declining to join some of its peers in Asia who have kicked off their easing cycles ahead of the Federal Reserve, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bank Indonesia kept its benchmark seven-day reverse repo rate at 6.25% on Wednesday, as widely anticipated. All seven economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected the Indonesian bank to maintain policy settings untouched, though some analysts saw a slim chance of a cut as inflation cools and the rupiah steadies.

China told some trust companies to stop raising money from individuals to fund local government financing vehicles in its latest effort to curb growing financial risks, Bloomberg News reported. The National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA) recently banned some lower-rated trust firms from selling wealth products underpinned by LGFVs on concerns of potential defaults. It’s unclear how many of China’s 67 trust firms received below-par ratings in the watchdog’s latest assessment.

A mainland Chinese court accepted a liquidation application filed against a China Evergrande Group unit earlier this month, triggering a formal legal process that ratchets up the pressure on the defaulted developer to either restructure or face liquidation in its main base of operations under a worst-case scenario, Bloomberg News reported. The Intermediate People’s Court of Guangzhou City, where Evergrande is based, accepted the application filed against Guangzhou Kailong Real Estate as of Aug. 9, according to a Hong Kong stock exchange filing late Monday.

China is considering a new funding option for local governments to buy unsold homes after a series of rescue packages failed to prop up the market, Bloomberg News reported. The latest proposal would allow local governments to fund their home purchases by issuing so-called special bonds, the proceeds of which are currently restricted to uses including infrastructure and environmental projects.

Turkey’s central bank extended its interest-rate pause for a fifth month and said it was placing even more importance on expectations for prices before discussing easing, Bloomberg News reported. The Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor Fatih Karahan, kept the one-week repo rate at 50% on Tuesday. “The alignment of inflation expectations and pricing behavior with projections has gained relative importance for the disinflation process,” the MPC said. The lira slipped 0.3% to 33.84 per US dollar at 3:30 pm in Istanbul.

The European Commission on Tuesday proposed final duties of up to 36.3% on imported electric vehicles made in China, as part of the highest profile EU probe of alleged Chinese subsidies which has provoked threats of retaliation from Beijing, Reuters reported. It has also launched investigations into whether Chinese clean tech producers are dumping subsidised goods on EU markets and whether Chinese-owned companies unfairly benefit from subsidies while operating inside the European Union. The EU executive says its aim is to prevent unfair competition and market distortion.

A bankruptcy filing against a Guangzhou-based unit of collapsed developer China Evergrande has been accepted by a mainland China court, according to a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange, the South China Morning Post reported. A court in the southeastern Chinese city accepted a bankruptcy liquidation application filed against Guangzhou Kailong Real Estate, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of the world’s most indebted developer, on August 9, the liquidators of Evergrande said in the filing on Monday.

China’s central bank said a meeting in Shanghai produced an agreement with the U.S. Treasury to appoint contact people to deal with any future “financial stress events,” Bloomberg News reported. The two sides also “exchanged lists of financial stability contacts” during the fifth meeting of the so-called Financial Working Group that was set up following Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to China last year.

Singapore will introduce new curbs on public housing purchases as its new prime minister seeks to tame years of price increases that threaten to become a political flashpoint for his ruling party in upcoming elections, Bloomberg News reported. The measures, which include a lower loan-to-value limit, are aimed at promoting a “stable and sustainable” market, according to a joint statement late Monday from the Ministry of National Development and the Housing & Development Board.