A possible Russian invasion of Ukraine is threatening to deepen a continuing economic crisis in nearby Turkey, which faces the prospect of soaring energy prices and disrupted trade with its two Black Sea neighbors in the event of war, the Wall Street Journal reported. Turkey’s economy has already been shaken by inflation that is among the highest in the world, after a series of unorthodox economic steps and a collapse of the currency’s value over the past year. Turkey is dependent on imported Russian oil and natural gas, as well as tourists from both countries.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) successfully restructured crippling debts and exited a US Chapter 11 bankruptcy process in just four months with a steady management team at the helm and the full financial backing of owner, billionaire Lucio Tan, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported. The flag carrier was also aided by a small army of international legal and financial consultants, who earned fees of almost $3 million (P150 million) advising the carrier during the creditor protection plea, a recent court filing showed.

Opening statements are expected to take place today in the U.S. corruption trial of a former Goldman Sachs banker charged with helping to launder hundreds of millions of dollars looted from Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, Reuters reported. Roger Ng, Goldman's former head of investment banking in Malaysia, stands accused of conspiring to launder money and to violate an anti-bribery law. He has pleaded not guilty and Ng's lawyer has called him a "fall guy" for one of the biggest financial scandals in Wall Street history. The trial in Brooklyn federal court could last up to six weeks.

China’s property developers started 2022 with weak sales, as many real-estate companies struggled to rekindle interest from home buyers despite Beijing’s recent attempts to ease some restrictions on the troubled sector, the Wall Street Journal reported. January contracted sales reports released in recent days by more than a dozen Chinese developers showed year-over-year declines ranging from about 10% to more than 80% for some companies. They also reflected price reductions by industry heavyweights such as Country Garden Holdings Co. Ltd. and Sunac China Holdings Ltd.

The Philippine government has mandated banks to sell a planned dollar bond, as it weighs raising as much as $7 billion via foreign commercial notes this year, Bloomberg News reported. The banks include Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Mizuho Bank, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered Bank, UBS, and Bank of China, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. The timing of any debt sale also depends on global events such as the U.S.-Russia standoff over Ukraine, the person said. The prospect of higher U.S.

Covid-19 drove tens of millions of migrant workers from cities back to their home villages, often to farm, and its lingering presence threatens India’s decadeslong quest to lift its economy from rural poverty to the modern age, the Wall Street Journal reported. In Covid-19’s first year, agriculture’s share of India’s total employment rose for the first time in at least 15 years, by 3 percentage points to 45.6%, government data show, yet it contributes less than a fifth of national output.

India's federal investigation agency has filed a police complaint against ABG Shipyard Ltd and its promoters accusing it of defrauding banks of 228.42 billion Indian rupees ($3.03 billion), Reuters reported. The report, posted on the Central Bureau of Investigation's website, said a forensic audit report it received from the banks two years ago had found instances of fraud in April 2012 and July 2017. The shipbuilder, identified by the central bank as one of India's "dirty dozen" highly indebted companies, has filed for bankruptcy resolution.

Australia concluded its quantitative easing program, leaving the Reserve Bank with more than 40% of government bonds on issue and raising questions about what it will do with the pile of assets, Bloomberg News reported. The RBA on Thursday conducted its final A$1.6 billion purchase of securities under a program that tripled its balance sheet to about A$650 billion ($465 billion). Indeed in 2021 it bought more than three times more debt than the government issued, the largest ratio across the world’s six largest developed bond markets.

China arrested a former senior official at the nation’s banking regulator over alleged bribery, adding to a long list of executives and policy makers caught up in the nation’s latest anti-graft crackdown, Bloomberg News reported. Cai Esheng, the former vice chairman at the banking watchdog who retired in 2013, also faces charges over the abuse of power, The Supreme People’s Procuratorate of the People’s Republic of China said on Thursday.

China Evergrande Group’s EGRNF 9.52% chief executive sold his holdings of company dollar bonds with a face value of $128 million last summer, stock exchange-filings showed, with the sales coming a few weeks before the property developer issued a profit warning, the Wall Street Journal reported. Evergrande CEO Xia Haijun, and Hui Ka Yan, the group’s founder and chairman, have in recent years bought sizable quantities of new bonds from the company, according to company statements and to earlier filings disclosing changes to their holdings.