Sri Lanka will appoint a former central bank official in charge of foreign-exchange management as the new chief, who will be steering the nation through a severe shortage of dollars that is stoking inflation, fomenting street protests and roiling the government, Bloomberg News reported. P. Nandalal Weerasinghe expects to take over as Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka April 7, he said by phone from Australia. The development was confirmed by the monetary authority’s spokeswoman.

Japan's Nippon Steel Corp. has completed its acquisition of majority stakes in two electric arc furnace steelmakers in Thailand, paying about $477 million in total, it said on Monday, Reuters reported. The company, Japan's biggest steelmaker, said in January that it will buy Thai steelmakers G Steel PCL and G J Steel PCL in a deal worth up to $763 million, seeking to cut its reliance on blast furnaces that use coking coal and emit carbon dioxide.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has proposed changes to regulations to ensure a time-bound grievance redressal and enforcement mechanism, including reducing timelines with respect to disciplinary proceedings. Various amendments have been mooted by the IBBI, a key institution in implementing the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), with respect to norms for grievance redressal and enforcement mechanism for the service providers registered with it.

The Bank of Japan should pay close attention to currency levels because its efforts to hold down interest rates are weakening the yen, according to a senior member of the Japanese ruling coalition party Komeito, Bloomberg News reported. “From the point of view of the economy, I understand why they are holding down interest rates,” said Keiichi Ishii, secretary general of Komeito, the junior partner to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party. “But the side effects of that are reflected in exchange rates,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg News in Tokyo on Friday.

A company accused by German authorities of supplying authoritarian countries such as Turkey, Egypt and Myanmar with trojan software that could be used to eavesdrop on dissidents has shut down operations and filed for insolvency, the Bloomberg reported. FinFisher GmbH sold spyware to law enforcement and intelligence agencies that allows users to access address books, chat messages, photographs and videos on targeted smartphones as well as listen in on telephone conversations.

The man behind Tauranga's failed Bella Vista development is fighting a New Zealand High Court challenge to declare him bankrupt, promising the court he has a plan to pay back a $1 million debt to a building materials supplier, the New Zealand Herald reported. Danny Cancian, former director of the now-liquidated Bella Vista Homes company, shed tears as he appeared via audio-visual link in the High Court at Tauranga yesterday. The 21-home Bella Vista development in The Lakes was evacuated by Tauranga City Council in 2018 over claims of construction deficiencies.

Sri Lanka's government imposed a weekend curfew on Saturday, even as hundreds of lawyers urged President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to revoke a state of emergency introduced following unrest over fuel and other shortages in a deep economic crisis, Reuters reported. The government's information department said a countrywide curfew would run from 6 p.m. (1230 GMT) on Saturday to 6 a.m. (0030 GMT) on Monday. Rajapaksa introduced a state of emergency on Friday, raising fears of a crackdown on protests.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has ordered initiation of insolvency proceedings against realty firm Santasha Real Estate, the Business Standard reported. The order came on a plea filed by Vani Advertising, an operational creditor to the company that has claimed a default of Rs 40.77 lakh. Admitting the plea, a two-member New Delhi bench of the NCLT appointed an interim resolution professional after suspending the board of the real estate firm.

Thailand's economic activity in March came under pressure from rising coronavirus infections and higher inflation driven by increasing energy prices, after a recovery in the previous month, the central bank said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Overall business activity was steady in March, while the baht depreciated following an escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Bank of Thailand (BOT) said. Southeast Asia's second-largest economy should, however, remain on the recovery path, senior BOT director Chayawadee Chai-Anant told a news conference.

Hong Kong's retail sales fell in February after 12 straight months of growth as a wave or COVID-19 infections hit the city and anti-epidemic measures weakened consumer sentiment and reduced the numbers of people going to shop, Reuters reported. Retail sales in February fell 14.6% from a year earlier to HK$25.2 billion ($3.22 billion), official data released on Thursday showed. That compares with a revised 4% increase in January and a 13.7% fall in last decline in January 2021. It is the steepest decline since July 2020, during the early months of the pandemic, when sales dropped 23.1%.