China's central bank on Wednesday held a meeting to promote its financial support for affordable housing in a bid to accelerate sales of unsold housing stock, as a property crisis threatens growth in the world's second-largest economy, Reuters reported. The central bank last month set up a 300 billion yuan ($41.4 billion) relending loan facility for affordable housing, and Wednesday's virtual meeting hosted from the city of Jinan in eastern Shandong province is the latest effort to promote the facility among local governments and banks.

The European Union will apply additional duties of up to 38% on imported Chinese electric vehicles from July in a latest effort to protect home-grown manufacturers, Reuters reported. It has also launched several probes into whether Chinese clean tech producers are dumping subsidised goods on EU markets and whether Chinese-owned companies unfairly benefit from subsidies while operating inside the European Union. The European Commission, which is carrying out the investigations, says its aim is to prevent unfair competition and market distortion.

China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle’s shares fell sharply after Chinese authorities ordered the company to repay government subsidies due to its failure to meet contractual obligations, adding to its woes, the Wall Street Journal reported. Shares of the electric-vehicle unit of property developer China Evergrande Group slid 21% to 34 Hong Kong cents (4 U.S. cents) on Wednesday morning, on track for their largest one-day loss in almost a year.

Life insurers in Taiwan are issuing an unprecedented amount of bonds that pose more risks to investors, as they rush to improve their finances before a deadline to shore up capital, Bloomberg News reported. Already in 2024, Taiwan’s seven major insurance firms have sold $2.4 billion of subordinated notes that put investors behind other debt holders for claims on assets in the event of any bankruptcy. That’s a record for the first half of a year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The number of corporate bankruptcies in Japan surged 42.9% from a year earlier to 1,009 in May, credit research firm Tokyo Shoko Research said on Monday, the Japan Times reported. The monthly number exceeded 1,000 for the first time since July 2013, when it reflected the impact of the end of funding support measures for small businesses introduced after the 2008 global financial crisis. The latest result came as many companies struggle with rising prices, as well as labor shortages mainly in the service sector.

The list of Chinese developers facing court-ordered liquidation in Hong Kong is getting longer, after a builder of homes in an affluent eastern coastal region was ordered to wind up. Dexin China Holdings Co. received the order Tuesday, three months after a petition was filed by China Construction Bank (Asia), and a year and half after it defaulted, Bloomberg News reported. A new restructuring plan was approved last year, though the developer, which builds residential as well as commercial buildings, wasn’t able to keep up with that either.

China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group faces the risk of losing assets such as land and equipment, the company said on Tuesday, as local administrative bodies demand repayment of 1.9 billion yuan ($261.91 million) in subsidies by its units, Reuters reported. The local bodies last month sent a letter of demand asking unit Evergrande Automotive Holdings to terminate a series of investment cooperation agreements made between the parties since April 29, 2019.

Australian businesses reported a reacceleration in inflation pressures in May despite the backdrop of a lifeless economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. The results of the latest monthly survey of firms by the National Australia Bank paint the worst of worlds for the Reserve Bank of Australia, which may need to raise interest rates further before it can claim victory over inflation. Business confidence fell 4 index points to minus 3 index points in May from April, while NAB’s business conditions index fell 1 point to 6 index points over the same period.

Japan's government will highlight the need to work closely with the central bank and guide policy "flexibly" in the wake of soft consumption and uncertainty over the inflation outlook, a draft of its annual economic blueprint seen by Reuters showed. "Monetary policy has entered a new stage," which required the government and the Bank of Japan to "continue working closely and guide policy flexibly in accordance to economic and price developments," according to the draft.

Pakistan’s central bank lowered its benchmark rate by a bigger margin than expected, the first reduction in four years, after consumer prices eased in the South Asian nation, Bloomberg News reported. The State Bank of Pakistan reduced the target rate by 150 basis points to 20.50%, compared to a median estimate for a 100 basis point cut. Only two economists predicted the decision. “The committee, on balance, viewed that it is now an appropriate time to reduce the policy rate,” the central bank said in a statement.