Banks are expected to take more enforcement actions on distressed buildings amid Hong Kong’s property market downturn, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Bloomberg News reported. That’s based on the estimate of the firm’s partner Christopher So, whose team oversees a portfolio of real estate under receivership valued at more than HK$10 billion ($1.28 billion). “Lenders tend to give borrowers some breathing space at the beginning.

A week after Japan’s top central banker shook up global markets with comments about raising interest rates, one of his deputies walked them back Wednesday and promised not to raise rates when markets are unstable, the Wall Street Journal reported. The pledge by Bank of Japan Deputy Gov. Shinichi Uchida led to a sharp recovery in Tokyo stock prices and a fall in the yen. That moved markets closer to where they were before the July 31 news conference by Gov. Kazuo Ueda, in which he suggested he wanted to keep raising rates despite lackluster consumer spending in Japan.

A battle between China’s central bank and government-bond buyers is intensifying, as traders keep snapping up the debt despite growing evidence of official displeasure, Bloomberg News reported. On one side is the People’s Bank of China, which skipped offering lenders short-term cash for the first time since 2020 on Wednesday — a sign it was seeking to limit leveraged buying of government debt.

China’s trade figures for July were a mixed bag, with exports slowing unexpectedly but imports growing at a faster-than-expected clip, signaling some improvement in domestic demand, the Wall Street Journal reported. Outbound shipments rose 7.0% from a year earlier in July, down from June’s 8.6% increase, said the General Administration of Customs on Wednesday. That was below the 9.4% growth expected by economists in a Wall Street Journal survey, but analysts say the outlook for exports still appears bright.

The microfinance sector in India has clamoured for easy credit rating rules from banks for the micro lenders with less than Rs 500 crore portfolio so that these entities get adequate doses of bank loans to grow their businesses, the Economic Times of India reported. The small and medium sized micro lenders are gasping for bank loans as they don't get bank loans as easily as their bigger counterparts with minimum Rs 1000 crore portfolio, even as the sector grew by nearly 25% in FY24 to a cumulative portfolio of Rs 4.3 lakh crore.

China Evergrande Group is seeking to recover $6 billion from its founder and others amid the former property giant’s continuing liquidation, the Wall Street Journal reported. The heavily indebted Chinese developer said late Monday that it is seeking to claw back the money from seven individuals, including founder Hui Ka Yan, his ex-wife, a former chief executive and a former chief financial officer.

A subsidiary of the People’s Bank of China asked rural lenders to be mindful of risks in government-bond trading and refrain from buying the securities in large sizes, Bloomberg News reported. The Jiangsu branch of the monetary authority — located in one of China’s wealthiest provinces and close to financial center Shanghai — this week told rural commercial lenders to control risks associated with their positions in long-term sovereign notes. The banks were told not to aggressively buy the bonds when state lenders are selling them.

The Reserve Bank of Australia left interest rates on hold at its August policy meeting, stopping well short of joining other major central banks in talking about coming rate cuts and instead warning that inflation will remain a problem for some time yet, the Wall Street Journal reported. The RBA’s official cash rate was held at a 12-year high of 4.35%, where it has remained since November.

Pakistan has secured commitments from China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to rollover debt for a year, a boost for the nation as it awaits a final approval for its new $7 billion loan program with the International Monetary Fund, Bloomberg News reported. The amount of rollovers will be the same as last year, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb told reporters in Islamabad after a parliamentary committee meeting. Pakistan has $12 billion in bilateral loans that have been extended for the past few years.