Asia Pacific

China’s passenger car retail sales shrank almost 20% in the first two months of this year, underscoring the challenges facing manufacturers in the world’s largest but long-stuttering auto market, the Wall Street Journal reported. The nation’s auto makers sold 2.7 million passenger cars in January and February combined, according to the China Passenger Car Association, down from 3.3 million a year earlier. The association partly attributed the drop to the ending of tax cuts on autos that boosted sales during the pandemic, as well as the end of electric-vehicle subsidies.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday said Sri Lanka had secured financing assurances from all its major bilateral creditors, paving the way for the IMF board to consider approval of a long-awaited $2.9 billion four-year bailout, Reuters reported. The IMF said its board will meet on March 20 to review a preliminary staff-level agreement first signed in September, offering a lifeline to the South Asian country which faces its worst financial crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is scheduled to pass its judgement on Tuesday on Mumbai-based Suraksha group's bid to acquire Jaypee Infratech Ltd through the insolvency process, the Economic Times of India reported. In late November last year, the NCLT reserved its order on Suraksha group's bid to acquire Jaypee Infratech Ltd and complete around 20,000 flats for aggrieved homebuyers.

Thailand's cabinet on Tuesday agreed to waive corporate income tax and value-added tax for companies that issue digital tokens for investment, a government spokeswoman said, Reuters reported. Companies will have access to alternative ways of raising capital through investment tokens in addition to traditional methods like debentures, Rachada Dhnadirek told reporters at a news conference.

Money managers on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley are learning once again that investing in China can be fraught, Bloomberg News reported. The Biden administration is close to completing an executive order that would curb U.S. investment in China’s tech industry, foreshadowing a further slowdown in bets on the world’s second-largest economy. Uncertainty over policy related to China has already contributed to a decrease of capital flowing into the Asian country.

The proposed amendments to the Malaysian Insolvency Act 1967, as announced in the revised 2023 Budget, will be tabled in Parliament next month, the New Straits Times reported. Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said the amendments to the Act would improve the administration and management of the country's bankruptcy system.

As China tries to turn the page on one of its worst stretches of growth since the 1970s, its economy is being weighed down by the colossal debts of its local governments, which swelled during the pandemic and are starting to come to a head, the Wall Street Journal reported. Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid campaign saddled cities with billions of dollars in unplanned expenditures for mass testing and lockdowns. The Chinese leader’s crackdown on excessive property-market leverage led to a sharp drop in land sales, depriving cities of one of their biggest revenue sources.

Pakistan will be required to give an assurance that its balance of payments deficit is fully financed for the fiscal year ending in June to unlock the next tranche of IMF funding, the fund's resident representative said on Monday, Reuters reported. The funding is critical for the South Asian economy, which is facing a balance of payments crisis, with its central bank foreign exchange reserves dropping to levels barely able to cover four weeks of imports.

China's foreign exchange regulator said on Monday that there is no change in China's policy on cross-border remittance of funds, and it will continue to promote a high-level opening-up to the world, Reuters reported. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) made the comments in response to Reuters questions regarding billionaire investor Mark Mobius' claims that he cannot take his money out of China due to its capital controls.

The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal has admitted an insolvency petition against N Kumar Housing and Infrastructure Limited which was a corporate guarantor for Poonam Resorts Limited which has defaulted on a loan amounting to over Rs 60 crore, the Economic Times of India reported. Details of the insolvency petition show that the company which is the principal borrower and the one that stood as corporate guarantor had the same director — N Kumar. he petition was filed by the erstwhile Allahabad Bank, now merged into Indian Bank, for non-payment of over Rs 60 crore.