China's troubled property market ended last year with the worst declines in new home prices in nearly nine years, despite government efforts to prop up the sector that was once a key driver of the world's second largest economy, Reuters reported. New home prices in December logged their steepest drop since February 2015, while property sales measured by floor area fell 23% in December from a year earlier, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Wednesday.

China’s economic growth rate finished at one of the lowest levels in decades last year, underscoring the heavy toll that a property-sector collapse and weak consumer confidence have taken on the world’s second-largest economy despite the lifting of all Covid-19 restrictions, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gross domestic product in China expanded 5.2% in the fourth quarter and for the full year in 2023, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.

Star Wars-inspired hoverbike maker A.L.I. Technologies Inc. filed for bankruptcy due to mounting research and development costs and slow adoption of the next-generation vehicles, Bloomberg News reported. The filing comes less than a year after parent Aerwins Technology Inc. debuted on the Nasdaq in one of the worst SPAC mergers of all time, prompting the startup to say it was at risk as a going concern.

Sri Lanka's bankrupt government said Friday that a foreign debt restructure would be finalised by the beginning of April, after signs the economy was emerging from its worst crisis on record, AFP News reported. The island nation defaulted on its $46 billion foreign debt in 2022 after a foreign exchange wipeout left it unable to import food, fuel and other essentials. It secured a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout last year which is conditional on a debt deal that satisfies foreign creditors.

China’s state-owned banks are tightening curbs on funding to Russian clients after the US authorized secondary sanctions on overseas financial firms that aid Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported. At least two banks ordered a review of their Russian business in recent weeks, focusing on cross-border deals, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter.

Cryptocurrency exchange HashKey Group said on Tuesday that it raised nearly $100 million after the completion of a Series A financing round, at a pre-money valuation exceeding $1.2 billion, Reuters reported. HashKey said that the newly raised capital will be used to strengthen its Web3 ecosystem, enhance product diversification of its licensed business in Hong Kong and support the Group's global development. Web3 is a version of the internet that operates the on blockchain technology used by crypto assets.

China’s economy grew around 5.2% in 2023, surpassing the government’s official growth target for the year without relying on “massive stimulus,” Chinese Premier Li Qiang said in Davos, Bloomberg News reported. “Last year in 2023, the Chinese economy rebounded and moved upward with an estimated growth of around 5.2%, higher than the ‘around 5%’ target set at the beginning of last year,” Li said on Tuesday in his first appearance as China’s No. 2 official at the annual World Economic Forum. “In promoting economic development, we did not resort to massive stimulus,” Li added.

Shares in Brazilian airline Gol tumbled on Monday after local newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported that the company was considering filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States within the next month, Reuters reported. Gol's shares slipped as much as 13% on the report before paring some losses to trade down 8.8%. The carrier was the biggest loser on Brazil's benchmark stock index Bovespa, which was trading near flat.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has admitted men's grooming and personal care firm Supermax Personal Care under the insolvency resolution process and appointed Kshitiz Gupta as the interim resolution professional of the company, the Economic Times of India reported. Mumbai-based Supermax Personal Care is a part of Super-Max Group. It is largely into products such as razors, blades and shaving creams, which it supplies to the market in India and other affiliates of Supermax Group abroad.

New bank lending in China rose less than expected in December, but 2023 lending hit a new record as the central bank kept policy accommodative to support an unexpectedly shaky economic recovery, Reuters reported. Chinese banks extended 1.17 trillion yuan ($163.31 billion) in new yuan loans in December, up from November but falling short of analysts' expectations, according to data released by the People's Bank of China on Friday.