Desperate for capital and with their economies struggling, China’s cities are wooing Western businesses with previously unavailable goodies. Beijing has labeled 2023 the “Year of Investing in China” and local officials have embarked on promotional tours overseas to drum up interest from investors. That effort is running headlong into President Xi Jinping’s national-security agenda, with its focus on fending off perceived foreign threats, the Wall Street Journal reported. That has made any Chinese investment a potential minefield for foreign firms.

China's exports fell last month at their fastest pace since the onset three years ago of the COVID-19 pandemic, as an ailing global economy puts mounting pressure on Chinese policymakers for fresh stimulus measures, Reuters reported. Momentum in China's post-COVID recovery has slowed after a brisk pickup in the first quarter, with analysts now downgrading their projections for the economy for the rest of the year.

China's economy is slowing due to weaker private investment, slowing exports and reduced domestic demand after a strong performance in the first quarter as the economy reopened from COVID-19 lockdowns, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday, Reuters reported. "So the overall picture for growth in China is one of a slowing economy and that is consistent with the forecast that we had in April," IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack told a regular news briefing, adding that the Fund was observing "subdued" inflation in China.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Tuesday dismissed a plea to initiate insolvency proceedings against Religare Enterprises Ltd observing that it was a financial service provider and does not come under the ambit of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC), the Economic Times of India reported.

The retail arm of Reliance Industries RELI.NS is among three companies eligible to submit a plan for the debt-ridden Future Enterprises FURE.NS's bankruptcy proceedings, Future's resolution professional disclosed in an exchange filing on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail Ventures, galvanised steel sheet maker Jindal (India) and Donear Industries-owned textiles maker GBTL DONE.NS have been listed as prospective resolution applicants for the Future Group company, said Avil Menezes.

China’s housing market is weakening again. But as worrying as that is for the nation’s growth, it may be a symptom of a much larger, thornier problem, according to a commentary in the Wall Street Journal. After a rebound at the beginning of the year in the wake of China’s reopening, the country’s property market has resumed its downward trend: Both sales and prices have started to fall again.

Billionaire Gautam Adani is weighing a bid for the coal-fired power plants belonging to beleaguered Indian tycoon Anil Ambani that are currently being auctioned by an Indian bankruptcy court, Bloomberg News reported. Adani, fresh from a $2.8 billion capital raising, may face intense competition for Vidarbha Industries Power Ltd., which operates the 600-megawatt generation facilities in central India, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the plans are private. Ambani’s Reliance Power Ltd.

The State Bank of India-led lenders on the monitoring committee of debt laden airline Jet Airways on Monday told the Supreme Court that the Jalan Fritsch consortium’s approved resolution plan has been rendered “unviable” and “unworkable” as nothing has been paid to it so far and even no money has been infused for the revival of the grounded carrier, the Economic Times of India reported.

China’s new loans accelerated in June after a central bank interest rate cut in the middle of the month aimed at boosting credit demand, Bloomberg News reported. Aggregate financing, a broad measure of credit, was 4.2 trillion yuan ($583 billion), the People’s Bank of China said Tuesday. That was higher than the median estimate of 3.1 trillion yuan in a Bloomberg survey of economists, and compares with 5.2 trillion yuan in the same month a year ago.

The European Union and Australia have failed to conclude talks on a planned free trade agreement, a European Commission spokesperson said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The EU and Australia opened negotiations in 2018 and had hoped to conclude talks this week. However, differences remained, particularly over the degree to which the EU will open its markets to Australian farm products, notably beef. "We regret it was not possible to conclude our talks with Australia this week. We made progress but more work is required to address key outstanding issues," the spokesperson said.