Vice President Kamala Harris made the case for the U.S. to strengthen its economic ties with Southeast Asia during a two-day trip to Singapore, where she stressed the need to work with countries to ease supply-chain constraints as a surge of Covid-19 cases has hit factories in the region, the Wall Street Journal reported. Harris said Tuesday she discussed the supply-chain problems extensively with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during their bilateral meetings.

Country Garden Holdings Co.’s half-year profit rebounded as China’s largest residential developer by sales pointed to an uncertain outlook with curbs on property prices escalating in the world’s second-biggest economy, Bloomberg News reported. Core net profit, which adjusts for property revaluations, gained 4.2% to 15.2 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) in the six months ended June 30 from a year earlier, the Foshan-based company said Tuesday. Revenue surged 27% to 235 billion yuan.

Indonesia's central bank will purchase government bonds worth up to 439 trillion rupiah ($30.46 billion) in 2021 and 2022 to provide cheaper financing for the government's COVID-19 relief measures, senior officials said, Reuters reported. The fiscal deficit financing scheme is similar to an agreement Bank Indonesia had with the finance ministry last year to fund ballooning health care and welfare bills amid the pandemic, which authorities said was a one-off measure. Investors and economists have raised concerns about the scheme's effects on inflation and the rupiah.

Half or more of Japan’s huge government debt doesn’t really exist. And even if it does, the country needs a lot more of it. Those are a couple of the arguments being heard in Tokyo as the rich world’s most-indebted government relative to its size prepares for a new round of spending this fall that could reach into the hundreds of billions of dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported. Japan often serves as a tryout venue for policies that later debut on the world economy’s biggest stage, the U.S.

Chinese bourses have halted more than 40 initial public offerings (IPOs) in Shanghai and Shenzhen amid a regulatory probe into several intermediaries in the deals, according to official exchange disclosures, Reuters reported. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange suspended more than 30 IPOs, including public share sale plans by BYD Co.'s chip unit, on Aug. 18, according to exchange filings. The Shanghai Stock Exchange has pressed the pause button on eight IPOs targeting the city's tech-focused STAR Market since Aug. 19.

India plans to raise 6 trillion rupees ($81 billion) from selling state-owned infrastructure assets over next four years to help bolster the government’s finances and plug its budget deficit, Bloomberg News reported. The plan will include sale of road and railway assets, airports, power transmission lines and gas pipelines, said the people who asked not to be identified as they aren’t authorized to share the details. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to make the road-map public at 5 p.m. Monday.

Afghanistan’s new Taliban-led government faces a series of shocks that probably will lead to a weaker currency, faster inflation and capital controls, according to the nation’s exiled central bank chief, Bloomberg News reported. The Afghani, as the tender is known, likely will see renewed weakness after it reached a record low last week, Ajmal Ahmady, governor of Da Afghanistan Bank, known as DAB, said in an interview for Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast. That could spur a pickup in consumer-price increases by making imports more expensive, he said.

China Evergrande Group pledged to fix its debt problems following a rare public rebuke from regulators as the developer struggles to stave off a liquidity crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Evergrande said that it will do its best to maintain stable operations, resolve debt risks, and keep stability in housing and financial markets. The People’s Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission earlier told the group to address its debt woes and refrain from spreading “untrue” information.

Japan's factory activity growth slowed in August, while that of the services sector shrank at the fastest pace since May last year, highlighting the increasingly heavy toll a recent wave of COVID-19 infections is taking on the economy, Reuters reported. Manufacturers mostly withstood the impact of the coronavirus resurgence, due largely to the highly contagious Delta variant that is forcing governments in Japan and elsewhere in Asia to put in place lockdowns or other curbs.

A major container terminal at China’s Ningbo-Zhoushan Port remained shut a week after operations were suspended from a single Covid-19 case, with dozens of ships lining up to load cargo for western markets ahead of the year-end shopping season, the Wall Street Journal reported. The congestion at Meishan terminal, which isn’t expected to resume full operations before the end of the month, is spreading to other ports like Shanghai and Hong Kong as big operators divert ships away from Ningbo.