Funai Electric, a Japanese midsize electronics manufacturer and Walmart supplier, has received court approval to start bankruptcy proceedings, it was revealed on Thursday, having fallen victim to intensifying competition with Chinese and South Korean manufacturers, Nikkei Asia reported. A quasi-bankruptcy petition was filed for Funai at Tokyo District Court. A normal bankruptcy petition is filed by the company itself, but when circumstances make that impossible, a company director or other party can file for quasi-bankruptcy in its place.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has directed initiation of insolvency proceedings against realty firm Spaze Towers, admitting a plea filed by its flat owners, the Economic Times of India reported. A two-member NCLT bench said that the company has defaulted in completing the construction of flats in project 'Spaze Arrow' at Sector 78, Gurugram and giving the possession within the promised timeline of 42 months.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Wednesday it was "still taking time" to sustainably achieve its 2% inflation target, signaling that the central bank will tread carefully in pushing up the country's still near-zero interest rates, Reuters reported. But he also warned of the cost of moving too slowly in raising rates, which could give speculators an excuse to trigger an unwelcome yen slide that pushes up import costs. "When there's huge uncertainty, you usually want to proceed cautiously and gradually," Ueda said at a panel at the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday.

India’s top court struck down a bankruptcy tribunal’s order that allowed Byju’s to settle debts with a key creditor, pushing the online tutor back firmly into the insolvency process, Bloomberg News reported. The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal didn’t follow due legal procedure when it allowed a debt settlement between Byju’s and India’s cricket regulator.

Pakistan is getting a promising response from China over its request to lengthen maturities for Belt and Road Initiative loans, according to its finance minister, signaling potentially more breathing room for the nation that has been squeezed by costly borrowing in the past, Bloomberg News reported. The South Asian nation is looking to increase the maturities for debt taken to build power plants and “create enough space” to lower electricity prices, Muhammad Aurangzeb said in an interview in Washington.

After three decades of ultra-loose monetary policy, even small hikes in interest rates by the Bank of Japan are poised to fuel an increase in the number of zombie companies that could be tipped into insolvency, Bloomberg News reported. Bankruptcies topped 5,000 cases for the first time in a decade between April and September, a report by Tokyo Shoko Research showed earlier this month. Those 5,095 firms collectively account for almost ¥1.38 trillion ($9.2 billion) yen in debt, with the largest slice coming from the service industry.

Australian billionaire Richard White has reached an out of court legal settlement with an alleged former lover who he was pursuing for bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. A notice of discontinuance was filed with the Federal Court of Australia late Monday, the court’s website shows. The case was settled out of court on Friday, according to a representative in barrister Bridie Nolan’s office, who asked not to be named because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly. Nolan was representing wellness entrepreneur Linda Rogan, who White had filed bankruptcy proceedings against.

China’s youth unemployment rate dropped in September after hitting a seasonal high during the summer but remained elevated, underscoring the strains in the country’s job market, the Wall Street Journal reported. The jobless rate among 16- to 24-year-olds, excluding students, stood at 17.6% last month, down from the peak of 18.8% in August, when millions of college graduates entered the labor market, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Tuesday.

Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen rebuked China’s “opaque” lending practices and urged global financial institutions and other creditors to accelerate debt relief to low- and middle-income countries in an interview on Monday, the New York Times reported. Her comments came ahead of this week’s annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, where global economic policymakers are gathering in Washington at a pivotal moment for the world economy. Inflation has eased, but war in the Middle East has threatened to jolt energy markets.