A group of Indian lenders has asked the central bank to approve a new benchmark for overnight indexed swaps, Bloomberg News reported. The banks want the swaps to reference the newly-proposed Secured Overnight Rupee Rate (SORR) instead of the prevailing Mumbai Interbank Outright Rate (MIBOR). The move is intended to improve price discovery in the interest-rate swap market, an opaque but important part of the financial system that helps banks and corporations manage their risks. An industry body reached out to banks this month to start work on the formulation of the SORR, the people said.

Singapore's key consumer price gauge rose 1.9% in November on a yearly basis, lower than economists' forecasts and the smallest rise in nearly three years, official data showed on Monday, Reuters reported. It was the smallest rise since November 2021, when it climbed by 1.6%. Headline inflation was 1.6% in annual terms in November. The Monetary Authority of Singapore had forecast core inflation to be around 2% in the fourth quarter.

Honda and Nissan said that they planned to merge in 2026, a move Honda’s chief executive said wasn’t a rescue of troubled Nissan but a recognition that developing new technologies was too hard to do alone, the Wall Street Journal reported. The companies said that they intended to create an automaker that, combined with Nissan partner Mitsubishi Motors, would be the third-largest carmaker in the world, after Toyota and Volkswagen, with more than eight million vehicles sold annually.

Indonesia’s Supreme Court has upheld the bankruptcy ruling on distressed textile company PT Sri Rejeki Isman, according to people familiar with the decision, risking layoffs for tens of thousands of its employees, Bloomberg News reported. The court on Wednesday rejected the appeal from Sritex - as the company is more commonly known - to overturn a lower court ruling in October that declared the company bankrupt. The ruling will raise uncertainties for the company’s roughly 50,000 employees.

The Supreme Court on Friday restored China Development Bank, Exim Bank of China, Asset Care and Reconstruction Enterprises and others as financial creditors in the insolvency process of Reliance Infratel Ltd, which is now acquired by Reliance Project & Property Management Services, a subsidiary of Reliance Jio Infocomm, the Economic Times of India reported.

Japan’s consumer inflation sped up in November, fanning rate-hike hopes, but price growth may not be strong enough yet to rush an immediate move, especially as the central bank remains wary about uncertainties at home and abroad, the Wall Street Journal reported. Overall consumer prices rose 2.9% in November from a year earlier, compared with the 2.3% growth seen in October, government data showed Friday. ​Energy prices rose 6.0% due to the fading effects of government subsidies for electricity and gas, compared with a 2.3% increase in October.

Taiwan’s central bank maintained interest rates unchanged again, delivering a third consecutive hold as it keeps a watchful eye on inflation and signs of overheating in the housing market, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) kept its benchmark discount rate at 2.000% on Thursday. It maintained secured and unsecured loan rates at 2.375% and 4.250%, respectively. The Taiwanese central bank attributed the hold to cooling domestic inflation and global economic conditions.

Indonesia’s apparel maker PT Pan Brothers avoided bankruptcy after it secured creditors’ approval to restructure 8.6 trillion rupiah ($537 million) of debt, Bloomberg News reported. More than 90% of the creditors gave their nod on the company’s latest debt proposal, according to Khusaini, a judge at Indonesia’s Jakarta court, after a voting on Wednesday. “The result will be formalized in a consultative meeting on December 23,” Khusaini, who goes by one name, said.