New Zealand’s international tourist sector disappeared overnight when the country became one of the first to seal its borders at the beginning of the COVID outbreak in early 2020. But since borders fully reopened in August, foreign tourists have been making their way back and are responsible for one of the main bright spots for an economy battling headwinds as a possible recession looms, Reuters reported.

China’s new premier, the country’s No. 2 leader after Xi Jinping, sought on Monday to reinvigorate confidence in the faltering economy, promising that private-sector companies would be treated equally with state-owned ones and that the property rights and other interests of entrepreneurs would be strictly respected, the New York Times reported.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority said on Monday it was seeking more information from Australian banks regarding any impact form the collapse of U.S. startup-focused lender SVB Financial Group, Reuters reported. "While the Australian banking industry has limited connections with the US-based Silicon Valley Bank, APRA is intensifying supervision of the local banking industry and is seeking more information from them on any potential impacts," APRA said in a statement.

The People’s Bank of China is expected to extend monetary support this week and maintain a key policy rate, after Beijing retained its governor in a leadership reshuffle that signals policy continuity, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank will probably provide 350 billion yuan ($50 billion) to financial institutions through a medium-term lending facility on Wednesday, as 200 billion yuan of the one-year policy loans mature, according to the median estimate of seven analysts surveyed. The net expected increase in liquidity would be less than the 199 billion yuan last month.

Adani Group said it had completed full prepayment of margin-linked share-backed financing worth $2.15 billion as part of its debt prepayment plan, before its deadline of March 31, Reuters reported. The Gautam Adani-owned conglomerate also prepaid a $500 million facility it had taken for Ambuja acquisition financing, it said in a statement on Sunday, adding that the payment comes in continuation of promoters' commitment to repay the leverage.

Virgin Australia is in talks with banks for a loan of up to A$450 million ($296.4 million) to pay its private equity owner Bain Capital before the airline's re-listing planned for later this year, Reuters reported. Australia's second largest airline is in discussions with banks including Goldman Sachs and UBS about the loan, said the sources, although no decision has been made yet and the size of the debt has not been finalised.

A new Chinese financial watchdog will help bridge regulatory gaps but analysts and investors say the agency will consolidate power at the top and could introduce more state and party intervention, Reuters reported. In a major shake-up, China will set up the new regulatory body, the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), according to a proposal that the State Council, or cabinet, presented to parliament on Tuesday.

China’s passenger car retail sales shrank almost 20% in the first two months of this year, underscoring the challenges facing manufacturers in the world’s largest but long-stuttering auto market, the Wall Street Journal reported. The nation’s auto makers sold 2.7 million passenger cars in January and February combined, according to the China Passenger Car Association, down from 3.3 million a year earlier. The association partly attributed the drop to the ending of tax cuts on autos that boosted sales during the pandemic, as well as the end of electric-vehicle subsidies.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday said Sri Lanka had secured financing assurances from all its major bilateral creditors, paving the way for the IMF board to consider approval of a long-awaited $2.9 billion four-year bailout, Reuters reported. The IMF said its board will meet on March 20 to review a preliminary staff-level agreement first signed in September, offering a lifeline to the South Asian country which faces its worst financial crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.