Turkey’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged Thursday, pausing a cycle of rate cuts and launching an “open-ended” policy review after inflation surged to its highest level since the beginning of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 19-year rule, Bloomberg News reported. The Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor Sahap Kavcioglu, held its one-week repo rate at 14% as forecast by all 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, in its first meeting since inflation hit a record 36.1%.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to meet Thursday with the leader of El Salvador, the first country to make bitcoin legal tender, while the Turkish central bank kept interest rates on hold in a move that will likely do little to arrest the country’s currency crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported. With El Salvador planning to launch a $1 billion bitcoin-backed bond, Turks and foreign investors are watching closely to see if the meeting between Mr.

China is drafting nationwide rules to make it easier for property developers to access funds from sales still held in escrow accounts in its latest move to ease a severe cash crunch in the sector, Reuters reported. Regulatory curbs on borrowing have driven the sector into crisis, highlighted by China Evergrande Group, which was once China's top-selling developer but is now the world's most indebted property firm with liabilities of $300 billion.

The United Arab Emirates and Turkey agreed to a currency swap equivalent to nearly $5 billion that reinforces an economic partnership between two Middle Eastern rivals and provides Ankara with a badly needed infusion of foreign funds, the Wall Street Journal reported. The deal, announced Wednesday, deepens the detente between Turkey and the U.A.E., powers that until recently were on opposite sides of a Middle Eastern cold war and remain at odds over conflicts in the region.

Tayo Rolls, a Tata group firm, has not generated any revenue since FY18 and is currently undergoing the corporate insolvency resolution process. That has not stopped a section of market punters from trading vigorously in its stock, which has soared nearly 230% since October 1, the Economic Times of India reported. In the absence of a running business operation, analysts said the trading frenzy in the stock could be part of a 'pump and dump' strategy by operators. Tayo Rolls, which suspended its operations in May 2016, is owned by Tata Steel and Japan's Yadogawa Steel.

China’s economy slowed markedly in the final months of last year as government measures to limit real estate speculation hurt other sectors as well, the New York Times reported. Lockdowns and travel restrictions to contain the coronavirus also dented consumer spending. Stringent regulations on everything from internet businesses to after-school tutoring companies have set off a wave of layoffs. China’s National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday that economic output from October through December was only 4 percent higher than during the same period a year earlier.

China’s central bank pledged to use more monetary policy tools to spur the economy and ease credit stress as signs of a property market slump worsens, Bloomberg News reported. The People’s Bank of China will “open monetary policy tool box wider, maintain stable overall money supply and avoid a collapse in credit,” Deputy Governor Liu Guoqiang said Tuesday at a briefing in Beijing. The central bank will roll out more policies to stabilize economic growth, front-load actions and make preemptive moves, he said.

Troubled cruise operator Genting Hong Kong Ltd. warned it may seek court assistance to safeguard its assets, after failing to secure funding to help it stay afloat following the insolvency of its German shipbuilding subsidiary, Bloomberg News reported. The cruise operator plans to file for provisional liquidation with courts in Bermuda, where its registered office is, unless it receives “credible proposals for a solvent, consensual and inter-conditional restructuring solution,” it said in an exchange filing.

Global investors are growing more skeptical that Sri Lanka will be able to repay its long-term debt as the island nation turns to bilateral aid to help it meet obligations, Bloomberg News reported. The South Asian country’s dollar bonds maturing toward the end of this decade are trading near record lows and default risk is holding near an all-time high, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The first test would be a $1 billion maturity in July, which policy makers say they will repay in time after drawing down a swap facility from China to help meet a $500 million payment this week.

Chief Justice of Malaysia Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat said on Friday (Jan 14) that Malaysia recorded an "alarming" drop of 53.6% in the number of commercial cases to 55,305 in 2021 from 119,258 in 2017 as insolvency and bankruptcy cases fell, TheEdgeMarkets.com reported. Speaking at the Opening of the Legal Year event here on Friday (Jan 14), Tengku Maimun said commercial cases are of significance as an indicator of the country's economy, as such disputes represent some measure of active business and trade. “This is an alarming drop of about 53.6% over a short period of five years.