Asia Pacific

Zhengzhou Exchange on Tuesday raised the trading margin requirements for some rapeseed meal futures contracts to 9% from 7% after Beijing's 100% tariff on Canadian imports triggered a two-day rally that pushed prices to a five-month high, Reuters reported. The most active rapeseed meal futures contract surged 7.23% to close at 2,684 yuan per metric ton, building on a 6% gain in the previous session, to its highest since September 2024. The new trading margin requirements will be effective from settlement on March 12.

Japan’s trade minister has failed to win an immediate exemption from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff campaign even as he doubled down on the request in his first in-person discussions with U.S. counterparts, Bloomberg News reported. "We have requested that Japan should not be subject to the tariff measures that the U.S. government has announced so far,” trade minister Yoji Muto said.

The Japanese economy grew at a slower pace than initially estimated in the October-December period, sending an unwelcome sign of fragility as the trade outlook darkens, the Wall Street Journal reported. Japan’s real gross domestic product expanded 2.2% on an annualized basis in the final quarter of 2024, compared with the 2.8% growth seen in preliminary estimates released in February, government data showed Tuesday. The economy grew 0.6% from the previous quarter.

Investors in Japanese corporate bonds are increasingly seeking protection against possible credit deterioration when an issuer becomes a takeover target, Bloomberg News reported. Change of Control covenants — which give bondholders certain rights to redeem the debt before maturity if the borrower has a significant change in ownership structure — have until now been very rarely seen in the ¥100 trillion ($680 billion) Japanese credit market.

Japan may see corporate bankruptcy cases hit an 11-year high in the fiscal year to March as some firms go under due to a lack of workers, a think tank survey showed, a sign of the strain intensifying job shortages are inflicting on the economy, Reuters reported. The survey highlights the cost felt by some firms from the Bank of Japan’s past efforts to reflate growth with easy monetary policy enough to tighten the job market and lift wages.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has directed that the resolution plans to acquire Jaiprakash Associates through the insolvency process should be invited for the entire company as a going concern and not by dividing its different business verticals, the Hindustan Times reported.

Chinese tariffs as high as 15% on a range of US agricultural goods take effect Monday, potentially exacerbating a trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies, Bloomberg News reported. The levies announced last week are far-reaching, touching commodities from beef and poultry to grains. Along with the tariffs, Beijing also said it would completely suspend soybean imports from three US entities and also halted purchases of American logs. Beijing’s move came after the Trump administration doubled a blanket tariff on all Chinese exports.

China’s consumer inflation dropped far more than expected to fall below zero for the first time in 13 months, an assessment skewed by seasonal distortions but also a sign of deflationary pressures persisting in the economy, Bloomberg News reported. The consumer price index declined 0.7% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Sunday, compared with a 0.5% gain in the previous month. That was lower than all but one forecast in a Bloomberg survey of analysts, whose median estimate was for a 0.4% drop.

Even as the amendments to be Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) are getting delayed, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has made a slew of regulatory changes in the past 18 months to enhance the efficiency of the resolution process, FinancialExpress.com reported. “Until amendments to the IBC are carried out, it’s only logical for the IBBI to make regulatory changes,” an official source told FE. Going forward too, the IBBI will be making significant changes to regulations to improve the efficiency, transparency, and effectiveness of the resolution process, the person added.