Turkey’s central bank has slashed interest rates for the third month in a row, making its biggest drop this year despite sky-high inflation that is squeezing people’s finances as it follows President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s unorthodox economic views, the Associated Press reported. The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey on Thursday lowered the benchmark rate by a massive 1.5 percentage points, to 10.5%. The bank cut rates by 1 percentage point each in August and September. The bank had kept the rate at 14% for eight months, pausing a previous round of cuts that triggered a currency crisis.

Domestic builders are facing growing concerns over the possibility of a series of bankruptcies amid worsening investor sentiment in the wake of the recent slump in the real estate market, according to industry officials on Thursday, the Korea Times reported. Late last month, Wooseok Construction, a medium-sized builder based in South Chungcheong Province, failed to repay its debt in time. If the company fails to make the payment again, it will be forced into bankruptcy.

China on Monday suddenly delayed the release of its economic data—including September housing sales—that was scheduled for this week. But there is little doubt that the property market is still in a dire shape and likely won’t get better without more determined help from Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported. While defaults for property developers in China have become a common event, the recent one from CIFI Holdings still rocked the market. The company said last week that it missed an interest payment on a Hong Kong dollar-denominated convertible bond.

National Asset Reconstruction Company of India (NARCL), the government-promoted bad bank, has given lenders of Meenakshi Energy a Rs 900 crore binding offer to acquire its debt, said two people aware of the development, the Economic Times of India reported. The thermal power company promoted by Hemant Kanoria and his family entered corporate insolvency in November 2019.

Japanese policymakers made fresh threats of intervention on Thursday after the yen tumbled past the key psychological level of 150 to the dollar, keeping investors on high alert in case Tokyo steps into markets again to support the fragile currency, Reuters reported.

Turkey's central bank slashed its policy rate by a more than expected 150 basis points to 10.5% on Thursday, and promised to halt the easing cycle urged by President Tayyip Erdogan after another similarly-hefty cut next month, Reuters reported. The move pushed the lira to a record low and sets up a likely rate cut to 9% next month. It comes after Erdogan repeatedly advocated for the unorthodox easing cycle and specifically called for single-digit rates by year-end.

A worsening crisis in China’s property market is dragging junk dollar bonds from the nation’s borrowers deeper into distress, as the implosion of what was once one of the world’s most-profitable bond trades sends ripples across trading floors, Bloomberg News reported. Anyone who had been expecting a market turnaround from the 20th Communist Party congress which started Sunday has been left grappling with a further grind lower in China’s offshore credit market this week.

A Turkish central bank official refused to tell lawmakers the cost of a flagship deposit program introduced by the government to boost confidence in the lira, Bloomberg News reported. Irfan Yanar, head of budget and financial reporting at the central bank, repeatedly declined to give a figure for the FX-protected deposit accounts, which guarantee savings against falls in the lira, according to minutes of a parliamentary commission meeting on Monday seen by Bloomberg.

Financial analysts said that the Reserve Bank of India’s currency intervention is making the rupee less attractive for carry traders, Bloomberg News reported.Its intervention in the spot and forward markets have helped pushed the 12-month implied yields on the rupee -- typically a reflection of interest rate differentials with the US -- to the lowest since 2011, eroding its appeal.

Indian edtech Byju’s said it has raised $250 million from existing investors led by the sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority, days after announcing job cuts in a bid to slash costs, Bloomberg News reported. The fundraising keeps Byju’s valuation of $22 billion and its status as India’s most valuable startup, with the bulk of the capital coming from the Qatar fund, a person familiar with the deal said on Monday, asking not to be named as those details are private.