Monetary policy transmission to the real economy in Sri Lanka is still incomplete, the governor of the country's central bank, Nandalal Weerasinghe, said at a LSEG FX Community Event on Monday, Reuters reported. Weerasinghe said he would like to see private sector interest rates come down further and at a faster pace, adding that the domestic debt restructuring is the most important focus for the debt-laden country in the near-term. "We would firstly like to see yields drop in line with policy rates and, from there, decline further. We are waiting to see this reaction from markets," he said.

The Philippine central bank will exercise caution against “too much” monetary tightening to avoid crimping economic growth, according to Governor Eli Remolona, Bloomberg News reported. “If we are going to hike, we have to be very careful not to hike too much,” Remolona said at a briefing in Manila Friday, when asked if the economy can handle more tightening on top of the 425-basis points of increases since last year.

Banks have written off bad loans worth Rs 14.56 lakh crore in the last nine financial years starting 2014-15, Parliament was informed on Monday, the Economic Times of India reported. Out of the total Rs 14,56,226 crore, written off loans of large industries and services stood at Rs 7,40,968 crore. Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) have recovered an aggregate amount of Rs 2,04,668 crore in written-off loans, including corporate loans, since April, 2014 and up to March, 2023, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

Distressed state construction company PT Waskita Karya of Indonesia said it won’t be able to deposit funds for the payment of interest and the repayment of principal for its rupiah bonds due Aug. 6, according to a filing on Friday, Bloomberg News reported. The rupiah-denominated notes of the heavily indebted builder has total outstanding of 135.5 billion rupiah ($8.9 million), according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The failure to make payments came after the company also missed a coupon payment due May 30, Waskita said in a statement.

Half a year after China lifted Covid-19 restrictions and reopened its borders, few international travelers are coming—another sign of decoupling between China and the West that could have negative repercussions for a long time, the Wall Street Journal reported. Foreign travelers’ absence is particularly evident in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, where the numbers of foreigners who visited in the first half of the year totaled less than a quarter of comparable figures in 2019, before the Covid pandemic.

China's central bank governor pledged on Thursday to guide more financial resources towards the private economy, suggesting refreshed urgency from Beijing to bolster the confidence among private firms as economic momentum weakens, Reuters reported. During a meeting on Thursday with at least eight private firms from sectors including property, aluminium and agribusiness, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Pan Gongsheng said the bank would roll out guidelines to support private firms.

The wage law enforcement agency of the Australian state of Victoria on Wednesday said it has filed more than 1,000 charges against top grocer Woolworths Group (WOW.AX), alleging failure to pay A$1 million ($659,000) in long-service leave to over 1,200 former employees, Reuters reported. The Wage Inspectorate Victoria (WIV) said that between 2018 and 2021, Woolworths did not pay more than A$960,000 in long-service leave entitlements to 1,199 former employees.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Mumbai recently had allowed an application filed by Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company Limited and initiated Corporate insolvency proceedings against well known art director Nitin Desai’s ND’s Art World Pvt Ltd over a debt of Rs 252 crore, the Economic Times of India reported. Edelweiss had filed the company petition last year to initiate Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process against the Corporate Debtor for unresolved financial debt of Rs 252 crore.

China will lower financing costs for firms, stabilise market expectations and support the property sector in coming months, the central bank said on Tuesday amid a flagging economic recovery, Reuters reported. The world's No.2 economy staged a better-than-expected recovery in the first quarter following COVID reopening but has lost steam since the April-June quarter as demand waned both at home and abroad.

Some Chinese city governments have made it harder for developers to access tens of billions of dollars from property sales held in escrow accounts, raising risks the cash-strapped companies will be squeezed even more, Reuters reported. The moves are aimed at ensuring the completion of more unfinished projects at the city level, they said, at a time home sales are sliding and the future of the whole sector is uncertain.