China’s property sector started to crumble under the weight of its huge debts. What was already shaping up to be the country’s worst housing market in years suffered another blow when a new variant of the coronavirus triggered widespread lockdowns and brought the economy to a standstill, the New York Times reported.

In China, an army of college students is set to enter the toughest job market in years, as Covid-19 takes the wind out of the broader economy and Beijing’s regulatory campaigns devastate industries long attractive to the country’s young people, the Wall Street Journal reported. Wang Shusheng, a student at a university in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou who is set to collect his diploma next week, said he has sent his résumé to more than 250 companies in the past few weeks, including some that he submitted at 2 a.m. during bouts of anxiety.

A judge declined to end exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui’s personal bankruptcy, siding with the Justice Department and some of his creditors who asked that a neutral party be brought in to take charge of his finances, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Julie Manning of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Bridgeport, Conn., yesterday ordered that an independent trustee be appointed to take over Mr. Guo’s chapter 11 case and work with his creditors on a plan to pay his debts and potentially resolve civil lawsuits against him. The ruling is a blow to Mr.

China’s economy improved slightly in May, offering hints of a recovery that is likely to remain fragile under the continuing threat of pandemic-related lockdowns, the Wall Street Journal reported. Official data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday showed an uptick in factory production and a smaller decline in retail sales in the world’s second-largest economy last month. Industrial production edged up 0.7% in May from a year earlier, reversing an almost 3% contraction in April, a sign that factories had resumed operations as Covid-19 curbs eased.

China's cabinet unveiled some steps on Monday to improve the allocation of resources among local governments to help ease their growing fiscal strains and debt risks, amid efforts to support the slowing economy, Reuters reported. In a document on fiscal reform below the provincial level, the State Council laid out steps to divide fiscal revenues and spending obligations among local governments, and transfer payments allocations. China has in recent years taken measures to shore up finances of debt-laden local governments, partly via increased transfer payments from the central government.

New bank lending in China jumped far more than expected in May and broader credit growth also quickened, as policymakers try to pull the world's second-largest economy out of a sharp, COVID-induced slump, Reuters reported. Chinese banks extended 1.89 trillion yuan ($282.62 billion) in new yuan loans in May, nearly tripling April's tally and handily beating expectations, data released by the People's Bank of China on Friday.

China's exports grew at a double-digit pace in May, shattering expectations in an encouraging sign for the world's second biggest economy, as factories restarted and logistics snags eased after authorities relaxed some COVID curbs in Shanghai, Reuters reported. Imports also expanded for the first time in three months, providing welcome relief to Chinese policy makers as they try to chart an economic path out of the supply-side shock that has rocked global trade and financial markets in recent months.

China's sputtering economy has a lot riding on its consumers, who are just now emerging from lockdowns in Shanghai and other big cities. But those hopes are running up against the likes of Wu Lei, a soccer coach in Beijing who has put off buying a new mobile phone, Bloomberg News reported. "I've lost the lion's share of my income since Beijing called a stop to after-school sports clubs in April," said Wu, a 37-year-old with two daughters. The five-week-long near-shutdown of the Chinese capital under China's stringent COVID-19 measures was eased on Monday.

Sri Lanka will need $5 billion over the next six months to ensure basic living standards, and is renegotiating the terms of a yuan-denominated swap worth $1.5 billion with China so as to fund essential imports, the prime minister said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The island nation's worst economic crisis in seven decades led to a shortage of foreign exchange that stalled imports of essential items such as fuel, medicine and fertiliser, provoking devaluation, street protests and a change of government.

Beijing residents eagerly indulged in a privilege that they had not enjoyed in weeks: dining inside a restaurant, the New York Times reported. The Chinese capital relaxed pandemic rules at midnight on Monday, including a ban on dining in, after a partial lockdown that lasted more than a month. Although the closures were not as strict as in Shanghai, the authorities in Beijing had suspended some public transportation, forced some people to quarantine, and enforced work-from-home in much of the city.