The Thai central bank cut its benchmark rate and flagged the possibility of slower economic growth, as ongoing global uncertainties cloud the Southeast Asian nation’s outlook, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Bank of Thailand’s monetary policy committee voted 5-2 on Wednesday to lower the policy rate to 1.75% from 2.00%, with two members voting to hold rates steady.

Core inflation in Australia slowed to a three-year low in the first quarter as costs in the services sector cooled markedly, data showed on Wednesday, supporting the case for another cut in interest rates in coming weeks, Reuters reported. Investors are fully expecting a quarter-point rate cut from the Reserve Bank of Australia on May 20 given the darkening outlook for global growth caused largely by U.S. tariffs, even as a stronger-than-expected reading in headline inflation saw some scale back aggressive bets for five rate cuts this year.

China’s leaders are downplaying the potential impact from U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war, saying they have the capacity to protect jobs and limit damage from higher tariffs on Chinese exports, the Associated Press reported. The briefing on Monday by several senior officials of different government ministries appeared aimed at shoring up confidence with promises of support for companies and the unemployed, easier lending conditions and other policies to counter the impact of combined tariffs of up to 145% on U.S. imports from China.

The escalation of the tariff war in April will aggravate stress for MSMEs particularly entities in the sectors where the impact of the tariff war is negative, said credit rating and research firm India Ratings and Research in a statement on Tuesday, FinancialExpress.com reported. Analysing 1,898 listed and unlisted MSMEs and 1,055 mid-corporates (MCs), the research firm said MCs have a greater cushion against unanticipated financial shocks with only 11 per cent of them under stress in comparison to MSMEs with 23 per cent of them being stressed.

China's three biggest airlines reported deeper first-quarter losses on Tuesday from the same period a year ago, amid intensifying competition and economic pressures on consumers, and a worsening trade war with the United States, Reuters reported. State-owned China Southern Airlines, Air China, and China Eastern have struggled to return to a break-even position after the COVID-19 pandemic, posting five consecutive years of annual losses.

China will not dump its goods in other countries due to its trade and tariff war with the U.S., Beijing's ambassador to India, Xu Feihong, wrote in an article on Tuesday, trying to allay fears of cheap Chinese goods flooding other markets, Reuters reported. In tit-for-tat tariffs between the world's two biggest economies, China and the U.S. have hiked levies on each other's goods to over 100% since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, rattling global markets, opens new tab.

The Bank of Japan is widely expected to maintain its policy rate unchanged at 0.5% at a two-day meeting ending Thursday as it waits to see if Japan will be exempt from President Trump’s tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reported. BOJ policymakers have grown more cautious about the impact of additional U.S. tariffs on the Japanese economy. Aside from the risk of exports slowing, they are worried that uncertainty over U.S. policymaking will make Japanese companies hesitant to allocate capital.

China's industrial profits returned to growth in the first quarter, official data showed on Sunday, but are likely to come under further pressure amid a trade war with the United States, Reuters reported. With Washington's aggressive tariffs threatening to hit China's crucial export engine hit and no time frame yet for any bilateral trade talks, economists and investors are waiting for the Chinese government to roll out more support measures to cushion the blow to the world's second-largest economy.