Finance State Minister Shehan Semasinghe told Parliament yesterday that Sri Lanka could exit bankruptcy by September, the Daily News reported. He also mentioned that with the implementation of the Anti-Corruption Act, Sri Lanka will be transformed into a corruption-free country. The State Minister said this during the debate on the Central Bank Bill. Semasinghe also said that Sri Lanka has received GSP tax relief for another four years. That’s a big victory. International confidence has been confirmed about the economic stability of the country.

IDBI Bank on Thursday moved the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) challenging a National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) order of 19 May, which had rejected the bank's plea to initiate insolvency proceedings against Zee Entertainment Enterprises, said a counsel aware of the matter, Live Mint reported. The insolvency application was filed before the dedicated bankruptcy tribunal to recover dues of ₹149.60 crore from Zee Entertainment. The case has been filed with the court registrar, but is yet to be listed for hearing.

South Korea's producer prices fell in June on an annual basis for the first time in 31 months, central bank data showed on Friday, dragged down by petroleum and agricultural products, Reuters reported. The producer price index was 0.2% lower in June than the same month the year before, after a rise of 0.5% in May, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The index showed annual increases every month from December 2020 and during the streak it once hit a 14-year high of 10%. Officials at the BOK remain cautious about whether the annual declines will continue.

A tentative rebound in the South Korean won may get an additional tailwind in the second half of the year thanks to the global boom in artificial intelligence, Bloomberg reported. That’s expected to boost exports of Korean semiconductors, which in turn will help improve the country’s terms of trade. Analysts from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., HSBC Holdings Plc and Nomura Holdings Inc. have touted a turn in the chip cycle as a plus for the won in recent research with the latter specifically mentioning the secular AI investment theme in a note last month.

Disgraced gambling giant Crown used its history of egregious law-breaking to argue down the third-largest corporate fine in Australian history, ABC reported. Last week, the Federal Court ordered the gambling giant to pay $450 million for at least 546 breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws between 2016 and 2022, an action brought by financial crimes agency AUSTRAC. With the company now owned by a private-equity firm, it is probably the last time such details of Crown's finances will be made public under the current owners.

China's central bank is expected to leave key interest rates on hold on Thursday, but the pressure to ease is growing almost by the day, Reuters reported. Japanese trade, Australian unemployment and Hong Kong inflation data top the regional economic calendar on Thursday, and investors will be hoping the continuing corporate earnings-fueled gains on Wall Street will drive local risk appetite. The Dow Jones Industrials is now up eight days in a row for the first time since September 2019. It last posted a nine-day winning streak in September 2017. Sentiment was again positive during the U.S.

New Zealand's Bed Bath & Beyond is fighting on two fronts to protect its brand. Now, the High Court has knocked it back, Newsroom reported. This country’s most familiar green-and-white High St.

Australia's corporate insolvency laws are facing extensive reforms in the near future, Mondaq reported. On 12 July 2023, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services (Committee) tabled its highly anticipated report into Corporate Insolvency in Australia (Report). In December 1988, the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) published its General Insolvency Inquiry (ALRC Report 45), more commonly referred to as the Harmer Report, following a five-year review of Australia’s corporate and personal insolvency laws.

Australia's securities regulator said on Wednesday it had canceled the license of the local arm of collapsed U.S. cryptocurrency exchange FTX, effective from July 14, Reuters reported. Bahamas-headquartered FTX, once a star of the crypto industry with a $32 billion valuation in January 2023, filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection last November, saying it was unable to completely repay customers who had deposited funds on its exchange. The industry has since been reeling amid the scrutiny of global regulators, while FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried faces a criminal lawsuit by the U.S.

Australia's central bank decided to keep interest rates steady this month as policy was clearly restrictive and there was a risk a squeeze on household finances could lead to a sharp downturn and higher unemployment, Reuters reported. However, the bank retained a warning that some tightening may still be required to bring inflation to heel, wary that the wider effects on inflation from higher rents, weak productivity and higher electricity prices had not been fully captured.