After a bruising 18 months of the pandemic, this fall represented a fresh start for the apparel company Everlane. It was preparing to release a slew of new products, with September marking the beginning of an ambitious marketing campaign around its denim. Instead, Everlane has spent this month scrambling just to get jeans — along with other products like bags and shoes — out of Vietnam, where a surge in coronavirus cases has forced factories to either close or operate at severely reduced capacity with staff living in on-site bubbles, the New York Times reported.
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Resources Per Country
- Afghanistan
- Armenia
- Australia
- Azerbaijan
- Bangladesh
- Bhutan
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- China
- Cook Islands
- Cyprus
- Fiji
- Georgia
- Hong Kong
- India
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Macau
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Micronesia
- Mongolia
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- New Zealand
- North Korea
- Pakistan
- Papua New Guinea
- Philippines
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- Thailand
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Vietnam
Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda played down the risk of a crisis from the troubles in China’s real estate market that have been exposed by the downfall of developer China Evergrande Group, Bloomberg News reported. “China’s real-estate problem is somewhat different from the problem we faced” in Japan in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kuroda said in a virtual panel discussion at a forum hosted by the European Central Bank Wednesday. “Extremely speculative investment in the real estate market does not appear to be the case in the Chinese case,” he said.
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Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund, the world’s largest pension fund, said it won’t include yuan-denominated Chinese sovereign debt in its portfolio, Bloomberg News reported. The decision comes as FTSE Russell is set to start adding Chinese debt to its benchmark global bond index, which the GPIF follows, from October. The pension fund will instead use a version of the World Government Bond Index that excludes Chinese government bonds, Hiroshi Nagaoka, an official at the pension fund, told Bloomberg News.
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After strong observation by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance on deep haircuts in recent insolvency resolution cases and several other discrepancies on part of lenders, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has approved the code of conduct for Committee of Creditors (COC)—one of the key stakeholders in the resolution ecosystem, Fortune India reported. The IBBI board, in its meeting held on last Friday, has approved the code of conduct for lenders, according to sources close to the development.
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Some holders of a bond issued by a company called Jumbo Fortune Enterprises are forming a committee to press their claims in the event of a default because they maintain China Evergrande Group is a guarantor of the debt, Bloomberg News reported. The $260 million note from Jumbo Fortune Enterprises matures Oct. 3, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The dollar note is guaranteed by China Evergrande Group and its unit Tianji Holding Ltd.
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The World Bank said yesterday that East Asia and Pacific region's recovery has been undermined by the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant, which is likely slowing economic growth and increasing inequality in the region, Reuters reported. Economic activity began to slow in the second quarter of 2021, and growth forecasts have been downgraded for most countries in the region, according to the World Bank's East Asia and Pacific Fall 2021 Economic Update.
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One of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges said it would close all user accounts in mainland China by the end of the year, days after the country’s central bank declared all crypto-related transactions illegal, the Wall Street Journal reported. Huobi Global, which was founded in 2013 and currently operates from offices in Singapore, South Korea, the U.S. and other countries, over the weekend said it stopped allowing new customers in mainland China to register accounts.
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Zambia may owe Chinese creditors almost double the amount the government has previously disclosed, complicating restructuring negotiations, a study found, Bloomberg News reported. The Johns Hopkins’ China Africa Research Initiative estimates the nation’s total liabilities to Chinese lenders at $6.6 billion and spread across at least 18 creditors, according to a report published on Tuesday. That compares with an official figure of $3.4 billion.
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Personal and corporate bankruptcies in South Korea increased by more than 10 percent last year, data showed Monday, reflecting the economic impact of COVID-19 on both businesses and households, the Korea Herald reported. According to the report released by the National Court Administration, the number of personal bankruptcies filed in 2020 rose by 10.4 percent from the previous year, from 45,654 cases to 50,379 cases. Last year’s tally was the biggest figure since 2015.
Malaysia saw 1,246 companies forced to wind down while 10,317 individuals filed for bankruptcy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 to July 2021, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaacob said, The Edge Markets reported. Of the forced winding-down incidents, some 497 cases or 39.89% were companies registered in the federal territories, followed by Selangor with 273 cases or 21.91%.