The Bank of Japan has started to make arrangements to end its negative interest rate policy at the March 18-19 meeting, Jiji news agency reported on Thursday. A number of major firms this week announced wage hikes above those of 2023, heightening expectations that the rosy pay trends will give the central bank leeway to make the key policy shift. Sources have told Reuters that the central bank will debate the end of its negative rate policy next week if Friday's preliminary survey on big firms' wage talks outcome yield strong results.

Country Garden Holdings Co. missed a coupon payment on a yuan bond for the first time, adding to the woes of the Chinese developer that is facing a lawsuit seeking its liquidation offshore, Bloomberg News reported. The builder’s main onshore unit hasn’t fully prepared a 96 million yuan ($13 million) coupon that came due on Tuesday for a 4.8% yuan bond maturing in 2026, the company said in a response to Bloomberg. There is a 30 trading-day grace period for the payment, it added.

China should rely more on structural reforms and less on economic stimulus to drive economic growth this year, Liu Shijin, a policy adviser to the central bank, said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Liu, a member of the People's Bank of China monetary policy committee, said the economy can achieve its growth target of around 5% this year but that more effort is needed on both stimulus and structural reforms.

The Australian government has announced it will abolish close to 500 “nuisance” tariffs from July 1, reducing the cost of importing everything from toothbrushes to roller coasters and bumper cars, the Wall Street Journal reported. Described by the center-left Labor government as the biggest unilateral tariff reform in at least two decades, removing the tariffs will cost the budget $19.9 million (30 million Australian dollars) in lost revenue annually, but help to streamline $5.6 billion (A$8.5 billion) in annual trade.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Mumbai on Thursday admitted an insolvency resolution application against NCR Rail Infrastructure (previously Arshiya Rail Infrastructure), and appointed Bhuvan Madan as the resolution professional for the company, the Economic Times of India reported. NCR Rail Infrastructure is an affiliate of BSE-listed Arshiya Ltd, which operates free-trade warehousing zones. Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company had approached the tribunal seeking to initiate insolvency proceedings against the company over a default on payment of Rs 71 crore.

The bankruptcy court in Ahmedabad has rejected Gujarat-based Express Group of Hotels’ revival plan for Neesa Leisure Ltd, which operates a luxury hotel chain under the brand Cambay, the Economic Times of India reported. The company has admitted liabilities of Rs 1,580 crore, whereas the resolution plan approved by the lenders proposed to give Rs 150 crore to them to acquire the company through the bankruptcy process. The successful resolution applicant had proposed Rs 250 crore towards capex and fresh funds, bringing the total value of the plan to Rs 400 crore.

India’s state governments should implement labor, land and other reforms that are “low hanging fruits” to help sustain the nation’s economic growth nearer 8%, a top economic official said, Bloomberg News reported. An “urgent priority” is for labor rules to take effect, India’s Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran said in an interview on Thursday. The policies have been passed at the national level, and need to be implemented at the state level, he said.

China's export and import growth in the January-February period beat forecasts, suggesting global trade is turning a corner in an encouraging signal for policymakers as they try to shore up a stuttering economic recovery, Reuters reported. China's improved export data joins those of South Korea and Germany, and Taiwan, who all saw their shipments top expectations over the first two months of the year, with the Asian economies benefiting from a surge in demand for semiconductors.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday tightened rules for credit and debit cards used for business accounts, Reuters reported. The RBI asked business card-issuers to put in place an effective mechanism to monitor end use of funds. Last month, the RBI had ordered Visa to stop using an unauthorized route to make business-to-business card payments which used fintech companies as an intermediary. The regulator on Thursday also said that card-issuers cannot share data of customers with outsourcing partners, unless it is "essential to discharge the functions" of the outsourcing partners.

Australia’s commodity-rich economy is on track for a soft landing, despite an alarming slowdown over the last year, supported by a household savings and an injection of pension funds as members of Generation X join baby boomers in retirement, according to the world’s biggest asset manager BlackRock, the Wall Street Journal reported. Craig Vardy, a portfolio manager for BlackRock based in Sydney, told reporters at a briefing that with swarms now tapping their retirement funds, the pool of savings in the economy is rising and is acting to ward off a recession.