Recent research from the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA) has unveiled a jump in personal insolvencies during December 2025, with a total of 1,063 new personal insolvencies being recorded over the month, AccountantsDaily.com.au reported. This was noted to be a rise from 992 in November 2025 and a rise from 828 in December 2024, with the most common employment industries entering personal insolvency being construction, health care and social assistance.

Australia's labour market has stabilised from a slowdown and remains tight, consistent with stubborn inflationary pressures in the economy, a senior central bank official said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Sarah Hunter, assistant governor at the Reserve Bank of Australia, said the central bank was closely monitoring conditions in the labour market to help assess how much the pick-up in inflation could be temporary.

China released new guidelines to regulate pricing behaviour for the automotive sector and outlined draft safety standards on Thursday, marking the latest effort to curb price wars and safeguard the industry's value and quality, Reuters reported. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) introduced guidelines targeting practices such as failure to display prices transparently and deceptive promotions by automakers, parts suppliers, and dealers involved in car production and sales.

China's chief trade negotiator Li Chenggang met Mexico's Deputy Economy Minister Vidal Llerenas in Beijing on Monday, in the first face-to-face talks since Mexico imposed higher tariffs on Chinese imports, drawing warnings from Beijing, Reuters reported. The two countries conducted in-depth exchanges on bilateral economic and trade relations and other issues, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. Mexico announced in December steep tariff increases on China and other countries without free trade agreements with Mexico - most up to 35%.

South Korea's Bithumb said on Wednesday that serious flaws had left the crypto exchange's internal system susceptible to potential sabotage and failed to prevent an erroneous transfer of more than $40 billion in assets last week, Reuters reported. The country's second-largest virtual asset exchange said it accidentally gave away about 620,000 bitcoins to customers during a promotional event, instead of 620,000 won ($426), triggering a 17% slump in bitcoin's price.

The European Union must simplify its regulations to make the bloc more competitive against the likes of the United States and China, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said ahead of summits of EU political ‌and business leaders, Reuters reported. EU growth has been persistently lower than that of the United States over the past two decades, with EU productivity and innovation, ‌particularly in fields like AI, falling short. "Let me take the U.S. example again. One financial system, one financial capital," von der Leyen said on Wednesday.