Growth paths in developing Asia continue to diverge, as some nations struggle with waves of infections while those that quickly rolled out vaccines and contained outbreaks gain from stronger global demand, according to the Asian Development Bank, Bloomberg reported. The region’s gross domestic product will expand 7.1% this year, down from 7.3% forecast in April and a turnaround from last year’s 0.1% contraction, the ADB said in its Asian Development Outlook Update. It sees developing Asia’s growth moderating to 5.4% in 2022.

Japan's financial watchdog said it requested Mizuho Financial Group Inc. and its banking arm Mizuho Bank to submit a work plan for system maintenance after a series of system failures this year, in a rare move to effectively oversee the system of a major bank, Kyodo News reported. The Financial Services Agency made the request as part of its business improvement order issued amid lingering concerns over the security of the financial group's system after it experienced seven failures this year.

IOI Properties Group — controlled by billionaire brothers Lee Yeow Chor and Lee Yeow Seng — submitted the only bid for a mixed-use hotel and residential site as the Malaysian developer doubles down on its investment in Marina Bay, Singapore’s downtown financial district, Forbes reported. Boulevard View, a wholly owned subsidiary of Malaysia-listed IOI Properties, offered S$1.51 billion ($1.1 billion) for the 99-year leasehold site, the Urban Redevelopment Authority said late Tuesday.

China Evergrande Group’s main unit has said it has “resolved” an interest payment due on one of its domestic bonds on Wednesday, offering some relief to jittery markets that had been on edge over fears that a messy default of China’s No. 2 property developer could ripple through China’s economy and the global financial system, Al Jazeera reported.

There have been many heated debates of late about the 90% or higher haircuts that lenders have taken in several high-profile bankruptcy resolutions, the New Indian Express reported. Erstwhile promoters, resolution professionals and even the committee of creditors have all been blamed by turns for the state of affairs. Opinion writers have written angry columns, and TV channels have carried heated panel discussions.

In Herat, a key axis of trade in western Afghanistan, a wave of bankruptcies is feared among traders, who express their “hopelessness” in the face of the deterioration of the country’s economic situation after the return of the Taliban to power in the middle of August, Market Research Telecast reported. “At the beginning, when the Taliban arrived, people were very happy, because we perceived that with them security was returning,” says Faghir Ahmad, a trader and importer of food products from Iran, very close to Herat.

Not many would have given Luckin Coffee a chance to survive its accounting fraud, yet since falling into provisional liquidation in July 2020, the firm has opened more stores, is getting a capital injection to repay creditors and is looking to exit chapter 15 bankruptcy protection, the South China Morning Post reported. On Tuesday, the Chinese Starbucks wannabe set another milestone by inking restructuring terms that could make bondholders almost whole and settle U.S. class-action lawsuits.

U.S. stock markets opened higher on Tuesday, rebounding from their worst day in months on Monday as nerves about the Chinese real estate debt crisis eased, Investing.com reported. Better-than-expected data from the housing market also supported the sentiment. Housing starts and building permits for August both came in above expectations, albeit not by enough to cause any acceleration in the Federal Reserve's timeline for running down its asset purchases or raising interest rates. The Fed's latest two-day policy meeting started Tuesday. By 9:45 a.m.

Visitors to Byton Ltd.’s website are greeted with color-saturated images of shiny electric cars gliding along manicured streets. Those paying a visit to the automaker’s factory in Nanjing, eastern China may be less impressed. The plant is modern and huge, gleaming under the hot summer sun. But there’s total silence. Production has been suspended since the pandemic began, and there’s no one around except for a lone security guard, Bloomberg News reported. It’s a similar situation across town at Bordrin Motors.

China’s energy industry is caught between a rock and a hard place, OilPrice.com reported. As the world’s second-largest economy has surged back to life in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic, energy demand has skyrocketed, leading to soaring fuel prices and unprecedented decisions out of Beijing to compromise some of the country’s energy security in the interest of keeping the lights on in the immediate term. What’s more, all of this is taking place as the Chinese economy enters a slowdown and inflation rates are on the rise.