China's factory inflation slowed but beat expectations in March, official data showed on Monday, as the country grapples with cost pressures caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and persistent supply chain bottlenecks, Reuters reported. The producer price index (PPI) increased 8.3% year-on-year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), easing from 8.8% growth in February but beating a forecast for a 7.9% rise in a Reuters poll. While the year-on-year PPI rise was the slowest since April 2021, the monthly increase of 1.1% was the fastest pace in five months.

Oil resumed its decline as China’s virus resurgence worsened, raising concerns about demand from the world’s biggest crude importer, Bloomberg News reported. West Texas Intermediate futures slid below $96 a barrel after climbing 2.3% on Friday, the first gain in four sessions. Virus cases continue to rise in Shanghai and there is no clarity on when restrictions will be lifted. The flare-up has led to disruptions at ports and prompted some refiners to trim operating rates.

Shanghai reported nearly 25,000 locally transmitted COVID-19 infections on Sunday and sought to assure locked-down residents of China's most populous city that supply bottlenecks affecting availability of food and other items would ease, Reuters reported. Streets remained largely silent in the city of 26 million people as curbs under its "zero tolerance" policy allow only healthcare workers, volunteers, delivery personnel or those with special permission to move freely.

China's cabinet on Wednesday held out the prospect of more measures to support an economy under pressure from a slowing global recovery, volatile commodity markets and COVID-19 outbreaks, Reuters reported. State media quoted the cabinet as saying it would roll out policies to stabilise market expectations in a timely way, without giving details. Analysts expect China's central bank to lower borrowing costs or pump more cash into the economy to spur growth.

China reported a record number of local Covid-19 cases on Monday, as authorities extended a sweeping lockdown in Shanghai in an effort to curb the country’s worst outbreak in more than two years, the Wall Street Journal reported. China recorded more than 16,400 new local Covid cases for Monday, according to the National Health Commission, the highest daily tally in mainland China in more than two years. More than 80% of the latest daily cases were in Shanghai, the commission said on Tuesday.

China Evergrande Group and some of its biggest offshore creditors have reached agreement on moving restructuring talks forward, helping stave off their threats of taking over the company’s offshore businesses after $2 billion in offshore cash was seized by banks, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Evergrande agreed in principle late last week to pay bondholders’ advisory fees, provide additional due diligence on the company’s financial health, and give creditors a formal role in the restructuring process.

A quartet of outside law firms and accountants will help probe how banks ended up taking control of more than $2 billion at a key China Evergrande Group subsidiary, the Wall Street Journal reported. Last week, the highly indebted Chinese real-estate developer and its Evergrande Property Services Group Ltd. unit said lenders had enforced their rights over 13.4 billion yuan, or about $2.1 billion, of bank deposits pledged by the subsidiary to guarantee third-party borrowing.

As millions of people in Shanghai line up for coronavirus tests, authorities are promising tax refunds for shopkeepers in the closed-down metropolis and to keep the world's busiest port functioning to limit disruption to industry and trade, the Associated Press reported. This week's shutdown of most activity in China's most populous city to contain virus outbreaks jolted global financial markets that already were on edge about Russia's war on Ukraine, higher U.S. interest rates and a Chinese economic slowdown.

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.

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.