Asia Pacific

Pakistan raised a tax on petroleum as the government takes steps to meet International Monetary Fund expectations before the financial agency releases the next tranche of a loan package, Bloomberg News reported. The petroleum development levy was increased by 10 rupees to 70 rupees a liter, according to a notification the Oil and Gas Regularity Authority posted on its website. The IMF said on Saturday that Pakistan is making progress toward receiving the second $1 billion installment of the $7 billion loan agreement it secured last year.

South Korean supermarket chain Homeplus has pledged to fully repay its vendors, prioritizing small businesses, while apologizing for heightened concerns over its financial stability following a court's approval of its entry into a corporate rehabilitation program earlier this month, the Korea Herald reported.

Country Garden Services, the property services arm of China's Country Garden, on Friday forecast a higher full-year profit on the back of lower impairment charges, Reuters reported. The property services arm expects a net profit attributable between 1.60 billion yuan ($221.03 million) and 2 billion yuan for fiscal 2024 ended December, compared with 292.3 million yuan a year earlier. Country Garden Services said it benefited from optimising some businesses it had acquired previously that led to lower impairment charges for the year ended 2024.

The Chinese government has strongly criticized a planned deal by a Hong Kong conglomerate to sell ports in Panama and elsewhere to an investment group led by an American asset manager, warning that the deal would deprive China of needed influence over key shipping routes, the New York Times reported. The criticism marks an abrupt shift in Chinese policy toward Panama and the control of seaports around the world. When President Donald Trump raised concerns soon after taking office that China had too much power in the Panama Canal, his comments were initially ridiculed by Beijing.

Japan’s largest labor union group said its workers secured the highest pay deal in more than three decades, supporting the case for further gradual interest rate hikes from the Bank of Japan, Bloomberg News reported. Some 760 affiliated unions under the trade union federation Rengo have so far secured an average pay gain of 5.46% in ongoing annual wage negotiations, according to its initial tally released on Friday. That’s the highest level since 1991 when compared with past final tally figures, and exceeded last year’s initial reading of 5.28%.

The China Shipowners' Association opposes a U.S. proposal to slap hefty port entry fees on ocean cargo carriers that own or have ordered vessels from China, saying it violates international rules and U.S. laws, according to a statement seen by Reuters on Thursday. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration aims to partially pay for an American shipbuilding comeback with those fees, according to a draft executive order seen by Reuters. The CSA's members include China's COSCO Shipping, which is expected to be among the hardest hit by the fees proposed by the U.S.

The commerce ministry of India on Thursday assured domestic exporters, particularly those in labour-intensive sectors like leather and textiles, to protect their interests amid the US tariff threats, industry officials said, the Economic Times of India reported. The issues related to the country's exports were discussed during a virtual meeting chaired by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal. Sectors like steel flagged concerns over the possible impact of US tariffs on exports.

A Thai business group on Thursday urged Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra to negotiate with the United States and consider lowering import taxes on U.S. goods, as the government met with the private sector to discuss U.S. trade policy, Reuters reported. The meeting comes ahead of a deadline U.S. President Donald Trump has set next month for federal agencies to complete comprehensive reviews of a range of trade issues, including analyses of persistent U.S. trade deficits.

Singapore prosecutors told a court on Thursday that a case in which Singapore-based firms have been accused of fraudulently supplying U.S. servers to Malaysia involves transactions worth $390 million, Reuters reported. Three men have been charged with committing fraud against Dell and Super Micro by falsely representing where the servers would end up. Singapore media have linked the case to the possible transfer of Nvidia's artificial intelligence chips to Chinese AI firm DeepSeek.