The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Chennai, has asked ASG Hospital for the sources of funds for its about ₹520-crore bid for Vasan Health Care Pvt. Ltd. under the corporate insolvency and resolution process, the Hindu reported. According to the legal proceedings, the committee of creditors had approved the Rajasthan-based ASG Hospital’s resolution plan with 97.9% voting in favour of the bid and sought the NCLT’s approval. At Friday’s hearing, the resolution professional told the NCLT that the bid was three times more than the liquidation value.

Commodity investors looking to China to reverse the severe rout in global metals markets may be disappointed, with Beijing unable to deliver the kind of investment splurge that powered past bull markets, Bloomberg News reported. Authorities are mulling a plan to let local governments sell 1.5 trillion yuan ($220 billion) of special bonds in the second half. This potential boost for infrastructure spending helped commodities pare some of their steep losses in recent weeks.

Sri Lanka raised interest rates to the highest level in two decades on Thursday, saying it had to head off runaway inflation to avoid even deeper pain for an economy that is already in crisis and is shrinking, Reuters reported. The Sri Lankan central bank increased its standing lending facility rate by 100 basis points to 15.50% while the standing deposit facility rate was similarly raised to 14.50%, the highest since August, 2001. Inflation touched a year-on-year record of 54.6% in June, and central bank Governor P.

Pakistan’s central bank raised borrowing costs more than expected to quell Asia’s second-fastest inflation and meet conditions for a loan from the International Monetary Fund, Bloomberg News reported. State Bank of Pakistan lifted the target rate by 125 basis points to 15% on Thursday. The hike aims “to moderate domestic demand, prevent a compounding of inflationary pressures and reduce risks to external stability,” the central bank said in a statement. Inflation, due in part to pent-up demand, high global commodity prices and rising imports, surged to a 13-year high of 21.32% in June.

Sri Lanka’s negotiations with the International Monetary Fund on a bailout are more complex and difficult than before because it is a bankrupt nation, the country’s prime minister said on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told lawmakers that recent discussions with a visiting IMF mission were fruitful but not as straightforward as in the past. The South Asian island nation is in its worst economic crisis in memory.

Australia’s central bank on Tuesday lifted its benchmark interest rate for a third time in three straight months, changing the cash rate to 1.35% from 0.85%, Reuters reported. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s half a percentage point rise was the same size as its June increase. When the bank lifted the rate by a quarter percentage point at its monthly board meeting in May, it was its first rate hike in more than 11 years. Increases at the June and July board meetings were widely expected.

China Evergrande Group is reaching out to its offshore creditors for their support to fight a lawsuit in a Hong Kong court aimed at liquidating the embattled property developer, Reuters reported. Evergrande, which is deemed to be in default on its nearly $23 billion of offshore debt and is working on a debt restructuring plan, aims to submit the backing of creditors as part of the evidence to the court ahead of the first hearing on the winding-up petition on Aug. 31.

Japan spent nearly 30 trillion yen less in the last fiscal year than it had planned for a second year running, which analysts said raises questions about whether stimulus measures like those adopted during COVID-19 could be implemented more efficiently, Reuters reported. The Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday there was an excess of some 22.4 trillion yen ($161.41 billion) in the budget for fiscal year 2021, which ended in March, mostly unspent pandemic support funds.

Japan's services sector activity expanded at the fastest pace in over eight years in June as the easing of coronavirus curbs boosted sentiment among businesses such as those in tourism, Reuters reported. The pick-up in activity is welcome news for a government betting on domestic demand to put the world's third-largest economy firmly on a recovery track and help overcome production pressures on the country's manufacturing industry.

Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) is seeking protection from creditors in the United States under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which allows foreign debtors to shield U.S. assets, according to a court filing on Friday, Reuters reported. Singapore-based 3AC is one of the highest-profile investors hit by the sharp sell-off in crypto markets and is being liquidated, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Representatives for 3AC filed a petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on Friday, according to court documents.