Japan's economy shrank for the first time in a year and at a faster pace than expected, data for the March quarter showed on Friday, underscoring the fragile nature of its recovery now under threat from U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policies, Reuters reported. Real gross domestic product (GDP) contracted an annualised 0.7% in January-March, preliminary government data showed, much bigger than a median market forecast for a 0.2% drop.

Chinese worker Liu Shengzun lost two jobs in just one month as U.S. import tariffs shot up to triple digits in April, forcing a Guangdong lighting products factory, and then a footwear maker, to reduce output, Reuters reported. Tariffs came down dramatically this week, but Liu has given up on factory jobs and is now back farming in his hometown in southern China. "It's been extremely difficult this year to find steady employment," said the 42-year-old, who used to earn 5,000 - 6,000 yuan ($693-$832) a month as a factory worker and now doesn't have a steady source of income.

South Korea's Minister of Trade and Industry Ahn Duk-geun said on Friday that Seoul would try to reach a deal with Washington on tariffs by the July deadline previously agreed, but warned that the target could be missed due to domestic politics, Reuters reported. The countries will hold technical consultations next week to proceed with tariff negotiations and expect to have another ministerial meeting in June, Ahn said, after meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

State-owned Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency said on Wednesday that it has filed a bankruptcy application against Gensol Engineering marking the first instance of a creditor taking the embattled firm to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Reuters reported. Gensol, a solar energy firm that also procured electric vehicles on behalf of ride-hailing service BluSmart, owes IREDA 5.10 billion rupees ($59.73 million).

South Korea will double the deposit insurance limit to 100 million won (US$71,174 or RM307,643) per client from September, raising the cap for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century to boost confidence in the banking system, Bloomberg News reported. The change will partially affect money markets as consumers may move their funds to high-interest paying institutions, such as savings banks, from commercial banks, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) said in an emailed statement on Thursday.

India's unemployment rate among individuals aged 15 years and above stood at 5.1% in April, the country's ministry of statistics said in a statement on Thursday, Reuters reported. This is the first of what will be India's monthly labour force data reports, which will cover both urban and rural areas. Previously, the government published quarterly and annual employment statistics for urban and rural areas respectively. India's labour statistics have been criticised in the past for long delays and an unrealistic picture of the unemployment in the country.

Ratings agency Fitch on Wednesday downgraded ratings for Chinese property company China Vanke citing liquidity concerns amidst an ailing property sector in the world's second largest economy, Reuters reported. Fitch downgraded long-term foreign- and local-currency issuer default ratings (IDRs) for the embattled property developer to 'CCC+' from 'B-'. The agency also downgraded the long-term IDR for the company's unit, Vanke Real Estate (Hong Kong), to 'CCC' from 'CCC+', and its senior unsecured rating and the rating on its outstanding senior notes to 'CCC', from 'CCC+'.

China's new bank loans tumbled more than expected in April as a protracted trade war with the United States further eroded the market's appetite during a typically slow month for loan demand, Reuters reported. Chinese banks extended 280 billion yuan ($38.87 billion) in new yuan loans in April, below analysts' forecasts and plummeting from March's 3.64 trillion yuan, according to Reuters calculations based on data released by the People's Bank of China. Total outstanding yuan loans rose at a record-low annual pace of 7.2% in April.