A Taliban delegation discussed facilitating international financial transactions with private banks on a recent trip to Kazakhstan in a bid to ease the Afghan banking sector's isolation, the acting commerce minister said, Reuters reported. Nooruddin Azizi, acting Minister of Commerce and Industry, led a business delegation to Kazakhstan last week. In addition to banking he discussed the possibility of preferential trade tariffs, telecommunications projects and transit routes, including for possible shipments of Russian oil to South Asia, he told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

Country Garden, China’s biggest developer by sales, has been pummeled in the markets twice in the past week, the New York Times reported. Investors are panicked by two events: On Aug. 1, the company scrapped a plan to inject cash into the business, something it needs. This week, it missed two interest payments on bonds. The bond payments, which are owed in U.S. dollars, are relatively small in value, but by missing them, the company put itself at risk of default. Country Garden’s market value has more than halved since the start of the year.

China’s deepening economic malaise has entered a potentially dangerous new phase, the Wall Street Journal reported. In July, consumer prices in the world’s second-largest economy tipped into deflationary territory for the first time in two years, as a host of other problems weigh on its recovery after lifting Covid-19 curbs. A drop in exports is accelerating, youth unemployment has hit record highs and its housing market is mired in a protracted downturn.

Kiyoshi Hashimoto's machinery factory outside Tokyo should be buzzing with industry. Instead, it's so quiet you can hear him practising the recorder. The 82-year-old entrepreneur founded his company nearly 40 years ago, but well past retirement age he has neither a successor nor a buyer for a business that retains loyal clients, the Japan Times reported. It is a problem that Japan's government warns could affect up to a third of all small businesses in the country by 2025, as the country's population shrinks and ages.

China's imports and exports fell much faster than expected in July as weaker demand threatens recovery prospects in the world's second-largest economy, heightening pressure for authorities to release fresh stimulus to steady growth, Reuters reported. The grim trade numbers reinforce expectations that economic activity could slow further in the third quarter, with construction, manufacturing and services activity, foreign direct investment and industrial profits all weakening.

Chinese developer Country Garden Holdings Co.’s stock and bonds plunged as noteholders said they haven’t received coupon payments effectively due Monday, further darkening sentiment in the crisis-stricken property sector, Bloomberg News reported. Some holders of two different notes said they didn’t receive coupon payments as of Tuesday afternoon. The investors asked not to be named as they’re not authorized to speak publicly. The company owed $10.5 million of interest on a dollar bond that matures in 2026 and $12 million on a note due 2030, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Pakistan plans to privatise its loss-making national carrier Pakistan International Airlines, the government said on Monday, as the country also seeks to outsource its airport operations in line with an IMF deal, Reuters reported. The privatisation decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee of Privatisation chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. The committee "after deliberation decided to include Pakistan International Airlines Co.

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi dismissed the ongoing rumors against its insolvency, which was fueled by total value locked (TVL) data that briefly showed $64 million in outflows between Aug. 5-6 amid ongoing investigations from Chinese authorities, CoinTelegraph.com reported. Outflows from Huobi over the weekend, based on data collected by decentralized finance (DeFi) TVL aggregator DefiLlama, showed the exchange’s TVL falling to $2.5 billion at the time of writing, down from $3.09 on July 6. Moreover, rumors that the exchange’s leadership had been arrested in China first surfaced on Aug.

China’s local government financing vehicles are showing more signs of stress, with a record number missing payments on a popular type of short-term debt last month, Bloomberg News reported. A total of 48 LGFVs were overdue on commercial paper, which typically carries a maturity of less than a year, up from 29 in June, according to a Huaan Securities Co. report citing data from the Shanghai Commercial Paper Exchange. Their missed payments amounted to 1.86 billion yuan ($259 million), versus 780 million yuan in June.

One measure of new foreign investment in China fell to the lowest level in 25 years in the second quarter, fueling concerns about how much geopolitical tensions and the economy’s slowing recovery can hurt business confidence, Bloomberg News reported. Direct investment liabilities — a gauge of foreign direct investment in China — slumped to just $4.9 billion in the April-June period, according to figures released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange on Friday. That was down 87% from the same period last year and was the smallest amount in any quarter in data back to 1998.