Thailand is less vulnerable to any spike in global bond yields stemming from policy normalization by the U.S. Federal Reserve due to its low reliance on external sources for debt financing and its high foreign reserves, the Bank of Thailand chief said, Bloomberg News reported. Bond yields in Thailand would be less exposed to “another taper tantrum” than those in some other emerging economies, Governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput told a virtual conference Wednesday organized by the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

The highly-infectious Delta variant has shut down factories in largely unvaccinated parts of Asia, throttling supply chains and contributing to rising consumer prices at a time when many thought the worst of Covid-19 supply disruptions were in the past, the Wall Street Journal reported. A gap has formed between the demand for goods in the well vaccinated U.S. and the capacity of sparsely vaccinated manufacturing countries to meet it, building inflationary pressure.

The World Bank said on Tuesday that it had halted disbursements of aid money to Afghanistan as it assesses how the Taliban plan to rule the country, the New York Times reported. A World Bank spokesperson said that the international development organization is “deeply concerned” about the situation in Afghanistan, particularly the impact that the new leadership will have on women in the country. The bank plans to monitor how the leadership transition proceeds and consult with the international community.

South Korea’s ballooning household debt set new records last quarter, offering support for views that the central bank will raise interest rates as early as this week to deflate a debt bubble, Bloomberg News reported. Total credit extended to households jumped 10.3% from a year earlier to 1,806 trillion won ($1.54 trillion), according to a Bank of Korea statement on Tuesday. The 169 trillion won increase marked the largest gain since data going back to 2003. From the previous three months, credit rose by 41.2 trillion won, the biggest increase for an April-June quarter.

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.