The growing caution among young buyers in China's battered property market, which accounts for a quarter of gross domestic product, presents a major challenge for policymakers in Beijing now scrambling to revive housing activity, Reuters reported. The weakness in the property sector, already buckling under huge debts, adds to the major disruptions caused by China's zero-COVID policy, which have upended factory and retail activity this year and cast a cloud over the global economy with international businesses increasingly worried about the outlook.

Chinese travel and spending has slowly started to improve as the country lifts some of its strictest coronavirus curbs, though the government’s commitment to Covid Zero has made a strong recovery elusive. Spending data from the three-day holiday weekend to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival showed a slump in domestic tourism revenue of 12.2% from a year ago -- a much narrower drop than the 43% plunge recorded a month ago over the national Labor Day holiday.

The Supreme Court on Friday approved a loan settlement offer given by Siva Industries promoters, while quashing a liquidation order passed by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and upheld by the appellate authority, the Economic Times of India reported. Siva group founder C Sivasankaran’s father, RCK Vallal, offered the settlement under Section 12A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, which enables lenders to seek NCLT approval to withdraw their petition for corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) provided 90% of them agree to the proposal.

China's services activity contracted for a third straight month in May, pointing to a slow recovery ahead despite the easing of some COVID lockdowns in Shanghai and neighbouring cities, a private business survey showed on Monday, Reuters reported. The Caixin services purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to 41.4 in May from 36.2 in April, edging up slightly as authorities began to roll back some of the strict restrictions that have paralysed the financial city of Shanghai and roiled global supply chains.

The worst is still to come for the Indian rupee after its slide in May to a historic low, according to analysts and forward markets, Bloomberg News reported. The currency may drop to between 79 to 81 per dollar over the next few months, according to analysts from UBS AG to Nomura Holdings Inc. and Bloomberg Economics. Forwards are also pricing in a similar weakness for the rupee. The bearish forecasts -- which will see the rupee drop as much as 4% from current level -- stem from a deterioration in India’s external finances.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Sunday that President Joe Biden has asked his team to look at the option of lifting some tariffs on China that were put into place by former President Donald Trump, to combat the current high inflation, Reuters reported. "We are looking at it. In fact, the president has asked us on his team to analyze that. And so we are in the process of doing that for him and he will have to make that decision," Raimondo told CNN in an interview on Sunday when asked about whether the Biden administration was weighing lifting tariffs on China to ease inflation.

Pakistan GDP growth will slow to 5% for the upcoming fiscal year beginning on July 1, from 5.9% in the outgoing year, following budgetary tightening aimed at winning International Monetary Fund (IMF) support, the government said on Saturday, Reuters reported. The planning ministry made the estimates ahead of the annual budget to be presented on June 10.

Heichinrou, an iconic Chinese restaurant in Japan founded 138 years ago, became the latest establishment to fall victim to the coronavirus pandemic, filing for bankruptcy protection on Thursday, Bloomberg News reported. The restaurant’s main branch, an institution of Yokohama’s famous Chinatown, began bankruptcy proceedings at the request of creditors with total debt likely exceeding 300 million yen ($2.3 million), according to research firm Teikoku Databank.

Sri Lanka seeks to secure around $5 billion in funding this year to cover repayments for fuel imports and other items bought through credit lines, and another $1 billion to bolster its foreign reserves, the prime minister's office said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The island nation is grappling with its worst financial crisis in over seven decades with a severe foreign exchange shortage that has left it struggling to pay for essential imports including food, fuel, fertilisers and medicines. Sri Lanka's foreign exchange reserves stood at $1.81 billion in April.

Fitch Ratings said on Thursday it has decided to withdraw its rating on embattled property developer China Evergrande Group and two of its subsidiaries as the firms have stopped participating in the process, Reuters reported. The rating agency in December downgraded Evergrande and its subsidiaries, Hengda Real Estate Group Co Ltd and Tianji Holding Ltd, to so-called "restricted default" status, saying the firms had defaulted on their offshore bond obligations.