Asia Pacific

China's banks are cutting the interest rates offered on U.S. dollar deposits after being asked to do so by the central bank, possibly to curtail dollar hoarding and also prop up a weakening yuan, Reuters reported. Mainland retail investors and exporters have built up nearly a trillion dollars worth of deposits because of higher U.S. yields and the yuan's slide. Two banking sources with direct knowledge of the matter said that banks across China, big and small, have over the past few weeks been told by the People's Bank of China (PBOC) they have to cut dollar deposit rates.

Distressed Chinese developer Yuzhou Group (1628) needs financing to press ahead with an offshore restructuring plan that received court approval last year, Bloomberg News reported. The builder will use the next six months to “shore up its liquidity in advance of making the payments due on the restructuring effective date,” Christopher Hunker, a counsel at Linklaters on behalf of Yuzhou, said during a Tuesday bankruptcy court hearing in New York. Financing difficulties have led to delays implementing the plan, the company said earlier this month in an exchange filing.

Some large hedge funds and investors are accumulating long-shunned China property stocks at low prices, anticipating lucrative returns when the sector recovers from its prolonged crisis, Reuters reported. Investors said recent positive signs, from improving home prices in top cities to industry leader China Vanke's recapitalization plan, suggest this year will be the turning point for the real estate market. To be sure, they are selective and have set their sights on leading state-backed homebuilders and China's largest online property brokerage.

President Donald Trump says he plans to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting next Tuesday, in addition to doubling the 10% universal tariff charged on imports from China, Reuters reported. Posting on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump said that illicit drugs such as fentanyl are being smuggled into the United States at “unacceptable levels" and that import taxes would force other countries to crackdown on the trafficking.

Thailand is in early discussions with carmakers to introduce a car trade-in and scrapping scheme in a bid to revive an industry hit by its biggest crisis in decades, three industry officials and two sources said, Reuters reported. Output in the Southeast Asian automobile hub, besieged by a flood of new EVs, has plummeted for more than a year, following a slowdown in exports and weak domestic sales, while tighter credit at a time of soaring household debt hit vehicle buying.

A Japanese labour union group representing major manufacturers said on Thursday its members are demanding a record increase in their base pay for this year, building on last year's momentum amid rising living costs, Reuters reported. The Japan Council of Metalworkers' Unions (JCM) is considered a pace-setter for annual wage negotiations and represents about 2 million workers for blue chip companies including Toyota Motor, Panasonic and Nippon Steel.

India’s world-beating economic growth faces headwinds from geoeconomic fragmentation and slower domestic demand, and it should implement crucial structural reforms to realize its ambition of becoming a developed country, according to the International Monetary Fund, Bloomberg News reported. Intensification of regional conflicts, volatile commodity prices, weakened international cooperation and cyberthreats pose high risk to India’s growth, the IMF said in its Article IV country report released Thursday.

National company law tribunal (NCLT) has admitted Ansal Properties and Infrastructure (Ansal API) into insolvency proceedings after the company was unable to defend itself against a petition filed by IL&FS Financial services, as per a court order on Tuesday, the Economic Times of India reported. IL&FS Financial Services has claimed that the listed Ansal API has failed to honour loans of Rs. 257 crore. It also claimed that Ansal API had entered into a settlement with it in 2022 but was not able to meet the terms of that settlement.

China needs to vastly step up its efforts to cleanse the balance sheets of the nation’s local governments, giving them the space needed to support consumer spending and strengthen the economy, one of the nation’s most prominent economists said, Bloomberg News reported. The central government should take on at least 20 trillion yuan ($2.8 trillion) worth of local sovereign debt, David Li Daokui, an economics professor at Tsinghua University and a regular adviser on policy to Beijing, said in an interview.