South Korea’s economy grew at a stronger-than-expected pace in the first quarter on improving private consumption, construction increases and steady exports, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gross domestic product in Asia’s fourth-largest economy expanded 3.4% year-over-year during the January-March period, accelerating from the previous quarter’s 2.2% growth, Bank of Korea preliminary data showed Thursday. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the economy grew 1.3% for the first three months of 2024, faster than the prior quarter’s 0.6% expansion, according to the central bank.

The Ahmedabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has admitted the listed road infrastructure company, Sadbhav Engineering, under the corporate insolvency resolution process in an application filed by its operational creditor, SS Infra, the Economic Times of India reported. The tribunal has also appointed Sanjay Kumar Agarwal as the interim resolution professional (IRP) of the company.

Even in 2016, the truth about China's real-estate market was obvious to anyone who knew what to look for: The boom had turned into a bubble—and was likely to end very badly, the Wall Street Journal reported. The bubble proceeded to get even worse, though, because no one wanted the music to stop. Chinese developers, home buyers, real-estate agents and even the Wall Street banks that helped underwrite the boom all ignored warning signs. Developers found ways to obscure the amount of debt they were holding, with the help of bankers and lawyers.

China’s central bank has again reiterated its cautious approach to monetary easing, reinforcing views that it’s unlikely to deliver a big liquidity boost via bond trading, the Wall Street Journal reported. Officials from the People’s Bank of China told the state-run Financial News that the central bank will stick to normal monetary policy tools, but broke weeks of silence about treasury bond trading, a policy tool it has used sparingly in the past two decades.

A surprise rate increase by Indonesia’s central bank underlines expectations that the start of monetary policy easing is looking increasingly far off for many Asian central banks, if it is on the horizon at all, the Wall Street Journal reported. As the U.S. Federal Reserve holds off on its own rate cuts and Asian currencies come under pressure, central banks in Asia face a dilemma. Lowering before the Fed does risks adding pressure to already-weak Asian currencies, pushing up prices of imported goods and services and sending inflation rates higher.

The bankruptcy court has admitted Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd's (IHFL) application to initiate insolvency resolution proceedings against Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra for default by a company called Vivek Infracon, the Economic Times of India reported.

South Korea is emerging as a closely watched weak link in the $63 trillion world of shadow banking, Bloomberg News reported. Real estate exposure has been showing cracks at home and abroad after interest rates rose, prompting financial firms including T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Nomura Holdings Inc. to express concern about stress in shadow loans to the sector. Delinquency rates at one key group of Korean lenders nearly doubled to 6.55% last year, while economists at Citigroup Inc.

Users of the hacked cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox received another optimistic signal regarding compensation for hacked funds, with Mt. Gox trustee updating some crucial repayment data, CoinTelegraph.com reported. Multiple Mt. Gox creditors have reported that their Mt. Gox claims accounts were updated with information about Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and fiat repayment, with many suggesting that cryptocurrency repayments are coming soon. Some of the first such reports surfaced on the Mt.

Hong Kong developer Lai Sun Development Co. is considering options for a planned office tower in the City of London, including a potential sale of a stake in the project, Bloomberg News reported. The group has appointed Eastdil Secured and DBS Group Holdings Ltd. to advise on finding a partner for the 100 Leadenhall Street project, according to people with knowledge of the appointments. The financial advisers are currently undertaking due diligence on the project and could seek a funding partner later in the year or in early 2025.

The U.S. is drafting sanctions that threaten to cut some Chinese banks off from the global financial system, arming Washington’s top envoy with diplomatic leverage that officials hope will stop Beijing’s commercial support of Russia’s military production, the Wall Street Journal reported. But as Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Beijing on Tuesday, the question is whether even the threat of the U.S.