After a major default, investor attention usually turns to the potential payout from credit default swaps, a type of security that acts as insurance against bankruptcy. But when one of China’s biggest property developers missed a coupon on its bonds late last month, few bothered to check whether there would be any money up for grabs, Bloomberg News reported. That’s because China’s CDS market is much less developed than in most major economies, meaning that many of the investors that bought Country Garden Holdings Ltd’s $10 billion of dollar bonds did so without hedging against default.

he Reserve Bank of Australia sharply revised up its forecasts for core inflation in the near term and warned that inflation pressures are cooling at a slower pace than anticipated against the backdrop of an economy that is proving more resilient than expected, the Wall Street Journal reported. Trimmed mean inflation, which is central to policy decisions at the RBA, is now expected to be running at 4.0% on-year by mid-2024, up from a forecast of 3.25% on-year in August.

JKN Global Group Pcl, a Thai media company that owns the Miss Universe beauty-pageant brand, has petitioned for debt rehabilitation as it seeks to solve a liquidity crunch, Bloomberg News reported. JKN submitted the business rehabilitation request with Thailand’s Central Bankruptcy Court on Wednesday, it said in an exchange filing. The company petitioned to adjust interest rates on existing debt and extend its debt repayment period, and proposed itself as a planner for the process.

China slipped back into deflation in October after a brief reprieve, highlighting how hard it is for Beijing to reinvigorate domestic demand in the world’s second-largest economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. In contrast to the U.S. and many advanced economies where taming inflation remains a high priority for central banks, China has struggled to revive inflation through most parts of the year—the latest evidence that a string of stimulus measures so far have failed to boost consumer confidence in the midst of a drawn-out property downturn.

Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. said that it doesn’t hold any shares in Country Garden Holdings Co. and has no plans to acquire the distressed Chinese developer, refuting a report that sent the insurance giant’s stock tumbling on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported. The insurer said in a Shanghai Stock Exchange filing that it hasn’t received any suggestions or requests from any government agency to take over Country Garden, responding to a Reuters report that China’s State Council instructed the government of Guangdong province to ask Ping An to take a controlling stake in the developer.

The list of business executives and political figures who have gone missing in China keeps growing, the Wall Street Journal reported. Top executives at a video-streaming platform and a pharmaceutical company were the latest to disappear, as an intensifying clampdown by Beijing on alleged corruption and malfeasance shakes business confidence in China, among local and foreign firms alike. Chen Shaojie, chief executive of livestreaming firm DouYu, has been unreachable since October, a person familiar with the matter said.

The Bank of Japan may end its negative interest rate policy as early as January, and keep raising short-term borrowing costs if the economy can weather risks from overseas uncertainties, said former central bank executive Eiji Maeda, Reuters reported. The BOJ last month revised up its price estimates to project inflation to hit 1.9% in both fiscal 2024 and 2025, as measured by an index that strips away the effects of volatile fresh food and fuel costs.

Chinese authorities have asked Ping An Insurance Group to take a controlling stake in embattled Country Garden, the nation's biggest private property developer, Reuters reported. China's State Council, which is headed by Premier Li Qiang, has instructed the local government of Guangdong province, where both companies are based, to help arrange a rescue of Country Garden by Ping An. A spokesperson for Ping An (601318.SS) said the company had not been approached by the government and denied the information reported by Reuters.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday called on the Netherlands to jointly advance bilateral cooperation in economy, trade, science and technology, innovation and other fields, while maintaining the stability of global industrial and supply chains, Reuters reported. Wang, in a phone call with his Dutch counterpart Hanke Bruins Slot, described the Netherlands as a "gateway" for China's cooperation with Europe, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

Indonesia sold $2 billion in the form of a US-currency sukuk, its first such issuance in 18 months against the backdrop of a global rise in borrowing costs, Bloomberg News reported. Southeast Asia’s largest economy issued $1 billion of five-year Sharia-compliant notes for general financing, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as they are not authorized to speak about it. It also launched $1 billion worth of 10-year green notes for expenditure as outlined under its sustainable securities framework.