The rise in Japan’s business service prices held steady at a three-decade high, in a development likely to fuel speculation that the Bank of Japan will inch its way toward normalizing policy in coming months, Bloomberg New reported. The country’s services producer price index, a gauge measuring the costs of a range of goods and services provided by businesses to other firms and government entities, rose 2.3% in November from a year earlier, the BOJ said Tuesday. It was the second month of 2.3% gains, the fastest since April 1992 when excluding periods when there were sales tax increases.

Major Japanese auto manufacturers will invest 150 billion baht ($4.34 billion) in Thailand over the next five years, a Thai government spokesperson said on Monday, supporting the Southeast Asian country's transition to making electric vehicles, Reuters reported. Toyota Motor and Honda Motor will invest about 50 billion baht each, while Isuzu Motors will invest 30 billion baht and Mitsubishi Motors 20 billion baht, spokesperson Chai Wacharoke said, adding this would include the production of electric pickup trucks. Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin concluded a trip to Japan last week.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda pointed out some positive potential aspects of having higher interest rates under normal economic conditions while also reiterating his pledge to continue with monetary easing patiently in the pursuit of stable inflation, Bloomberg News reported. “The most obvious benefit of a slightly positive inflation rate is larger room for monetary policy responses to an economic downturn,” Ueda said in a speech Monday at a conference hosted by the Keidanren, Japan’s biggest business lobby, in Tokyo.

Stonepeak Partners entered into an agreement to invest in AA Ltd., the breakdown coverage firm said in a statement, Bloomberg News reported. The alternative investment firm will become a minority shareholder of AA, according to the statement Saturday. AA didn’t disclose the size of the investment. Sky News earlier reported Stonepeak was nearing a £450 million ($572 million) investment into AA, which is owned by private equity firms TowerBrook and Warburg Pincus.

India's finance ministry has asked managing directors of public sector banks to review monthly the top 20 insolvency cases, financial services secretary told reporters, Reuters reported. The government has asked for reviews of insolvency cases as there are delays in admission of cases in insolvency courts. "There are delays in admission stage,” Vivek Joshi, Vivek Joshi, said.

The bankruptcy court in Kolkata has approved the acquisition of Khaitan family-promoted listed engineering firm McNally Bharat Engineering Co by BTL EPC Ltd, the Economic Times of India reported. McNally Bharat had admitted liabilities of Rs5,015 crore. The lenders have approved the Kolkata-based EPC firm’s over Rs 441-croreresolution plan with 90.06% votes in favour. Originally, the Kolkata bench of the National Company Law Tribunal had admitted the company under the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) in 2020 following an application filed by its lender, Bank of India.

China’s biggest banks are lowering the deposit rates offered to savers, a move that could pave the way for the central bank to make interest-rate cuts to spur economic growth, the Wall Street Journal reported. Five state-owned lenders and joint-stock bank China Merchants Bank said the rate cuts took effect on Friday. The five were Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and Bank of Communications.

Japan's finance minister on Friday said he would strive to contain the risk of runaway debt after unveiling an annual budget as speculation mounts the central bank will shift away from more than two decades of ultra-easy monetary policy, Reuters reported. The world's third-largest economy is under pressure to restore its fiscal health after prolonged stimulus and spending worsened a national debt that is the heaviest in the industrialised world.

Japan’s labor market remained relatively tight in November, keeping pressure on employers to boost pay in order to fill positions as companies prepare to engage in annual wage negotiations with unions, Bloomberg News reported. The job-to-applicants ratio eased a tad to 1.28, meaning there were 128 jobs offered for every 100 applicants, the labor ministry reported Tuesday. Economists had forecast the reading would be unchanged at 1.30. A separate report from the ministry of internal affairs showed the unemployment rate held steady at 2.5% in November.

China Aoyuan Group Ltd. filed for chapter 15 protection in New York on Wednesday, a move by the defaulted property developer to seek U.S. court recognition for its offshore debt restructuring and ward off litigation, Bloomberg News reported. The Guangzhou-based developer, which had about $6 billion of total offshore interest-bearing liabilities as of the end of 2022, is undergoing restructuring in Hong Kong, Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands after deciding last year to forgo paying debt.