Chinese leader Xi Jinping and several hundred other top Communist Party officials huddled in Beijing this week to plot a path forward for their country’s sagging economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. The outline they released after four days of meetings suggests a future that looks more or less like the present. That fidelity to China’s current course signals that Xi remains committed to his vision of state-led development, even as unease festers—among ordinary Chinese and foreign investors—over his stewardship of the world’s second-largest economy.

The Hyderabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has initiated corporate insolvency proceedings against GVK Power & Infrastructure (GPIL) in response to a petition by ICICI Bank and joined by five other banks seeking recovery of about Rs 18,000 crore of dues from the company, the Economic Times of India reported. ICICI Bank had petitioned the court in November 2020 to pursue the recovery of its $1.35 billion lent through its Dubai, Bahrain and Singapore branches along with 3 other lenders.

Indian education technology company Byju's will challenge insolvency proceedings initiated against it in an attempt to block the process this week, as the startup once valued at $22 billion tries to tide over the crisis, two sources said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The National Company Law Tribunal in the southern state of Karnataka on Tuesday ordered insolvency proceedings against the company after a complaint by the cricket board for not paying $19 million in dues. A court-appointed professional is currently running the company.

Inflation in New Zealand softened by more than expected in the three months through June, raising the prospect that the official cash rate could be cut as soon as next month, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices rose by 0.4% in the second quarter of this year, and by 3.3% from the same period a year earlier, Stats NZ said Wednesday. The annual rise was lower than the 3.6% increase expected by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, which has turned more dovish recently as the South Pacific economy struggles to emerge from a postpandemic slump.

Chinese developer Hopson Development Holdings Ltd. has received a maturity extension of a loan from 2023 that backed the purchase of some commercial real estate space in a Hong Kong office building, Bloomberg News reported. Seatown Holdings Pte Ltd., a subsidiary of Singaporean sovereign fund Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd., has extended around $100 million to $115 million of a $165 million loan for Hopson. The developer had paid down a portion of the facility, originally due in May, to obtain a lower interest rate.

The World Trade Organization said on Wednesday that it was unable to get a clear picture of China's financial support for key industrial sectors, such as electric vehicles or aluminium and steel production due to an "overall lack of transparency," Reuters reported. The WTO noted that the world's second-largest economy gave financial support and other incentives to industries over the 2021-2024 review period but said that Beijing did not provide enough information for the WTO to have a clear picture of the programmes.

An Indian tribunal on Tuesday started insolvency proceedings for edtech firm Byju's after the country's cricket board complained about failure to recover $19 million in dues, dealing another blow to a company that was once India's biggest startup, Reuters reported. Byju's has suffered numerous setbacks in the past few years, leading to a crisis of investor confidence, thousands of job cuts and a collapse in its valuation to less than $3 billion from $22 billion in 2022.

After Beijing ordered Chinese cities to buy newly-completed apartments and turn them into affordable housing, the first steps they took were to unveil plans to broaden eligibility for subsidies and fix other economic headaches in the process, Reuters reported. Chinese leaders issued the directive in May, aiming to alleviate a protracted property crisis, which has led to bloated inventories of unsold apartments that have crippled developers' cash flows and weighed heavily on home prices, consumer confidence and economic activity.

Energy Absolute Pcl shares plunged by the 30% daily limit after the founder and chief executive quit over a fraud probe and its credit rating was slashed to junk, Bloomberg News reported. Energy Absolute fell to a 10-year low of 9.2 baht when it resumed trading Tuesday, after revealing it has 19.5 billion baht ($539 million) of debt due in 2024 and is seeking one or more strategic partners. Its disclosure followed a one-day share suspension ordered by the Stock Exchange of Thailand, which demanded the renewables company explain its financials and the impact of a fraud probe.

Thailand's prime minister said Monday that eligible businesses and individuals can register from August for digital cash handouts, a controversial program that will cost billions of dollars and is meant to boost the lagging economy. The government announced in April the widely criticized ambitious plan, named the “Digital Wallet,” meant to give 10,000 baht (about $275) to 50 million citizens in digital money to spend at local businesses.