China's economy is set to grow 5% this year, after a "strong" first quarter, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday, upgrading its earlier forecast of 4.6% expansion though it expects slower growth in the years ahead, Reuters reported. The global lender's new projections come as Beijing steps up efforts to shore up an uneven recovery in the world's second-biggest economy, which has stumbled in the face of a protracted property crisis and its ripple effects across investors, consumers and businesses.

The Bank of Japan will need to proceed carefully with any further policy changes, policy board member Seiji Adachi said, stressing that the central bank’s decision to end easing measures wasn’t a shift toward monetary tightening, the Wall Street Journal reported. “We need to absolutely avoid premature rate increases, which could throw cold water on a chance for the Japanese economy to recover,” Adachi said in a speech on Wednesday.

China's latest steps to revive its struggling property market could pose risks to banks operating in lower-tier cities, S&P Global said on Monday, Reuters reported. The measures announced earlier this month such as cutting down payment requirements and removing the floor for mortgage rates are expected to temporarily increase property demand, but the increased leverage could also cause an uptick in mortgage defaults, according to a S&P Global report. Property prices in smaller tier-three cities are expected to decline about 14% through the 2024-2025 period, the report said.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has confirmed it will apply new restrictions on mortgage lending in a bid to reduce potential financial instability risks stemming from high household debt and rising home prices, the Wall Street Journal reported. The debt-to-income settings, which will apply from July 1, will allow banks to lend up to 20% of residential loans to owner occupiers with DTI ratios of over six and to investors with a DTI ratio of over seven, the central bank said on Tuesday.

Doing business in Hong Kong increasingly comes with a new risk: the political cost of upsetting Beijing. Chinese clients recently dropped one big Chicago law firm after it recused itself from a politically sensitive case, the New York Times reported. A former Wall Street banker was muzzled for writing a “Hong Kong is dead” column. And Google was effectively cornered into enforcing a ban on a popular protest anthem. In all areas of life, Hong Kong is hewing closer to mainland China, blurring distinctions that once cemented the city’s status as mostly free from the politics of Beijing.

Pakistan’s new government is hoping to inject some fresh momentum into projects that fall under China’s Belt and Road Initiative, as it tries to boost the country’s troubled economy, Bloomberg News reported. The South Asian nation is looking at joint ventures for renewable energy projects, agriculture collaboration and possibly enticing some Chinese companies to relocate to Pakistan, said Ahsan Iqbal, Pakistan’s federal minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, who also co-heads the committee responsible for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, in an interview.

Australian retail sales remained weak in April, highlighting the plight of consumers in the face of elevated interest rates and rising costs, while signaling a sluggish economy for some time yet, the Wall Street Journal reported. Retail turnover rose 0.1% in April, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday. Economists had expected a rise of 0.3% for the month. The weak result follows a 0.4% fall in March, and a 0.2% rise in February.

The Pre-packaged Insolvency Resolution Process (PPIRP) has resulted in the full settlement of operational creditors' claims in five cases, the Economic Times of India reported. They are - Amrit India, Sudal Industries, Shri Rajasthan Syntex, Enn Tee International and GCCL Infrastructure and Projects. The government enacted the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) in August 2021 and introduced the PPIRP for micro, small and medium enterprises. According to the newsletter of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), these five cases resulted in a 25% realisation.

China has a very big housing problem with nearly four million apartments that no one wants to buy, according to a New York Times commentary. Xi Jinping, the country’s leader, and his deputies have called on the government to buy them. The plan, announced last week, is the boldest move yet by Beijing to stop the tailspin of a housing crisis that threatens one of the world’s biggest economies. It was also not nearly enough, according to the commentary.