Auditors have resigned from a series of Chinese property companies, reflecting the challenges of verifying these businesses’ financial health after a punishing sector-wide downturn, the Wall Street Journal reported. Audit firms are probably taking a hard look at the developers’ results after a series of revelations about off-balance-sheet debts, analysts and investors say. Pandemic-related restrictions in mainland China and Hong Kong have also made it harder to collect information.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which are exporters of steel products, will have a huge impact on global steel demand and trade if it lasts for a long time, the head of a Japanese steel industry group said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. "Even before the Ukraine crisis, we had faced three risk factors to dent steel demand -- China's slowdown, global chip shortage and soaring energy and natural resources prices," Japan Iron and Steel Federation Chairman Eiji Hashimoto told a news conference.

Japan will ban the export of high-end cars and other luxury goods to Russia in its latest response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the trade ministry said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The partial ban on Russia-bound auto items, which account for more than half of Japan's exports to Russia, came after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a commitment to place more sanctions on Russia at a Group of Seven summit last week.

Sri Lanka will have to undergo debt restructuring as strongly suggested by the International Monetary Fund in order to secure financing from creditors, according to Citigroup Global Markets, Bloomberg News reported. The prescription follows IMF’s observation that fiscal consolidation efforts alone to pare debt to safe levels would be too large to be economically and politically feasible. While the IMF didn’t specify what a safe level is, Citi sees reduction to a 79.7% public debt ratio witnessed between 2010-18 as a good benchmark from 119% level last year.

Realty developer Supertech has been declared insolvent after the Delhi bench of the National Company Law Tribunal admitted a petition filed by the Union Bank of India for non-payment of dues, the Economic Times of India reported. The NCLT has appointed Hitesh Goel as the insolvency resolution professional (IRP). The company which was under stress and was in the process of demolishing two illegal towers at its Noida project following the order of the Supreme Court, has multiple under construction projects in NCR.

An Indian-origin soft drinks businessman from central England has been banned from holding a company directorship for nine years after admitting inflating figures to acquire a loan under a Covid-19 pandemic support scheme, the Hindustan Times reported. Inderjit Singh Dadial, whose ban comes into effect from this week, was the sole director of Cali Juices Limited, a wholesaler of specialised soft drinks incorporated in 2019 with a registered address in Wolverhampton.

An economic crisis is disrupting life across Sri Lanka, an island nation off India’s southern coast that only recently had been outperforming its neighbors, the New York Times reported. In less than a decade, Sri Lanka recovered from the ravages of a civil war that ended in 2009, soaring to the status of an upper-middle-income nation. It built a tourism-based economy that brought billions of dollars, many jobs and middle class comforts: high-end eateries and cafes, imported Jeeps and Audis, and upscale malls. Now, Sri Lankans just want the lights to stay on.

Chinese stocks fell as a lockdown in Shanghai to combat a virus flareup raised worries over disruptions to business operations and the toll on economic growth, Bloomberg News reported. The CSI 300 Index declined by as much as 2% early Monday before trimming losses, as the city said it will lock down in two phases to conduct a mass testing blitz. Consumer stocks led losses across China and Hong Kong markets, with baijiu maker Kweichow Moutai Co and sportswear makers Li Ning Co. and Anta Sports Products Ltd. weighing heavily on benchmark gauges.

CIFI Holdings Group Co. shares plunged 8.8% as 2021 profit dropped and the builder’s gross margin missed analysts’ estimates, Bloomberg News reported. Other developers including China Evergrande Group have already warned they will probably miss deadlines this month for reporting audited results. S&P Global Ratings withdrew its long-term issuer credit score on Sunac China Holdings Ltd. at the company’s request, while Fitch also downgraded the builder.

After losing two years to the COVID-19 pandemic, shopkeepers in the heart of the Turkish Riviera had hoped for a strong tourism season this year to help keep their businesses afloat. But Russia’s war in Ukraine is fast dampening their spirits, the Associated Press reported. “We’re trying to earn our bread through tourism, but it looks like the war has finished off this (tourism) season, too,” Devrim Akcay said outside his clothing shop in the resort town of Belek, along the Mediterranean coast’s Antalya province.