India’s trade deficit ballooned to a record high in July, as elevated commodity prices and a weak rupee inflated the country’s import bill, Bloomberg News reported. The gap between exports and imports widened to $31.02 billion in July, from $26.18 billion in June, B.V.R Subrahmanyam, India’s trade secretary, told reporters at a briefing in New Delhi Tuesday, citing preliminary data. The trade deficit in June was a record before the latest numbers were released. Imports jumped 43.59% in July from a year ago, while exports dropped 0.76%.

Embattled property developer China Evergrande Group said one of its units has been told to honor a $1.1 billion guarantee, revealing yet another large financial obligation that wasn’t previously disclosed, the Wall Street Journal reported. Evergrande, in a regulatory filing on Sunday, said one of its subsidiaries in China had provided counter guarantees to an unnamed entity by pledging its shares in Shengjing Bank Co., a regional lender based in the city of Shenyang, the capital of northeastern Liaoning province.

A deal to sell a majority stake in Thailand’s largest crypto exchange to the nation’s oldest bank remains stuck in due diligence more than eight months after the plan was unveiled, according to the platform’s co-founder, Bloomberg News reported. The proposal with SCB X Pcl that helped propel Bitkub Online Co. into a so-called unicorn has yet to be wrapped up, according to Jirayut Srupsrisopa, chief executive officer of Bitkub Capital Group Holdings.

Sri Lanka’s new president said the country has experienced the worst of its economic crisis and that restoring political stability will allow it to begin turning a corner, starting with finalizing negotiations for an International Monetary Fund bailout that had stalled due to recent turmoil, the Wall Street Journal reported. “I think we’ve already hit the bottom,” Ranil Wickremesinghe said in an interview Sunday with The Wall Street Journal.

Pakistan sees a way out of its current economic crisis without descending into default, thanks to progress on a stalled International Monetary Fund loan as well as spending cuts, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said, Bloomberg News reported. “With the commodity super cycle and Russia-Ukraine war, oil prices skyrocketing and gas going as high as ever been in history, Pakistan and other emerging countries have been facing the worst crisis,” he said in a phone interview.

Crypto lender Vauld, which halted withdrawals earlier this month, is facing hostile action from multiple creditors, according to a new affidavit reviewed by Moneycontrol. As per the affidavit, Vauld has received two demand letters and two civil claims from four creditors. One of the letters demanded $340,000 in payment plus interest from Vauld, while the claim amounts of the other creditors were not mentioned in the affidavit. The lender owes $402 million to creditors, of which, $363 million belongs to individual retail investors.

A regulatory breakthrough is expected to slash costs for investors trading over-the-counter derivatives in China, the latest step in opening up the nation’s capital markets to foreign investors, Bloomberg News reported. A Chinese law that takes effect Monday enforces a mechanism used around the world for determining payouts if a derivative counterparty defaults, bringing the standards there in line with those used in other major markets.

China Evergrande Group will offer its offshore creditors asset packages that may include shares in two overseas-listed units as a sweetener, the developer said on Friday, as a stifling liquidity crisis in the property sector continues, Reuters reported. The two listed units are Evergrande Property Services Group Ltd and electric vehicle maker China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Ltd, the embattled developer said in an update on its preliminary restructuring proposal, a move that was widely expected by creditors.

A group of offshore creditors to China Evergrande Group are demanding additional information about the seizure of nearly $2 billion by local banks that could explain how the troubled property developer pledged the funds without investors’ knowledge, the Wall Street Journal reported. Last Friday, Evergrande released the preliminary results of an investigation into the missing funds pledged as security for loans by an offshore subsidiary that manages Evergrande-built properties.

China will try hard to achieve the best possible results for the economy this year, state media said on Thursday after a high-level meeting of the ruling Communist Party, dropping previous calls that it will strive to meet its 2022 growth target, Reuters reported. In the second half, China should "stabilise employment and prices, maintain economic operations within a reasonable range, and strive to achieve the best possible results," Xinhua news agency reported, after the 25-member Politburo chaired by President Xi Jinping met to assess the economy.