China is drafting nationwide rules to make it easier for property developers to access funds from sales still held in escrow accounts in its latest move to ease a severe cash crunch in the sector, Reuters reported. Regulatory curbs on borrowing have driven the sector into crisis, highlighted by China Evergrande Group, which was once China's top-selling developer but is now the world's most indebted property firm with liabilities of $300 billion.

China’s economy slowed markedly in the final months of last year as government measures to limit real estate speculation hurt other sectors as well, the New York Times reported. Lockdowns and travel restrictions to contain the coronavirus also dented consumer spending. Stringent regulations on everything from internet businesses to after-school tutoring companies have set off a wave of layoffs. China’s National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday that economic output from October through December was only 4 percent higher than during the same period a year earlier.

China’s central bank pledged to use more monetary policy tools to spur the economy and ease credit stress as signs of a property market slump worsens, Bloomberg News reported. The People’s Bank of China will “open monetary policy tool box wider, maintain stable overall money supply and avoid a collapse in credit,” Deputy Governor Liu Guoqiang said Tuesday at a briefing in Beijing. The central bank will roll out more policies to stabilize economic growth, front-load actions and make preemptive moves, he said.

China Cinda Asset Management Co., a state-owned financial institution, is pulling out of a planned large investment in the consumer-finance arm of Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co., dealing a setback to the fintech giant’s lending-business revamp, the Wall Street Journal reported. Beijing-based Cinda, which is one of the country’s four big bad-debt managers, said Thursday that its board of directors made the decision to back out “after further prudent commercial consideration and negotiation” with the recently established Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance Co. It didn’t provide more details.

If last week's developments at China's most indebted property developer are anything to go by, 2022 might see Beijing soften its attempts to purge the sector and make more allowances for economic stability, Reuters reported. China Evergrande Group, whose rocky financial situation has roiled Chinese property firms and global financial markets over the past year, got a reprieve this week after investors agreed to extend a payment date on a yuan bond.

China Evergrande Group on Thursday secured a crucial approval from onshore bondholders to delay payments on one of its bonds, as other cash-strapped developers also scrambled to negotiate new terms with creditors to avoid defaults, Reuters reported. Struggling with more than $300 billion in liabilities, sector giant Evergrande was seeking more time for bond coupon and redemption payments to avoid a technical default that would have complicated its politically sensitive restructuring.

Several of China’s largest banks have become more selective about funding real estate projects by local government financing vehicles, concerned that some are taking on too much risk after they replaced private developers as key buyers of land, Bloomberg News reported. At least five state-run banks have imposed new restrictions this year on loans to weaker LGFVs seeking to buy land and develop new real estate projects, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter.

It was once hailed as the future of Chinese banking, a privately run lender that would mint money by outmaneuvering its state-owned rivals, Bloomberg News reported. An ill-fated push into property lending has instead turned China Minsheng Banking Corp. into one of the biggest casualties of the real estate debt crisis that’s roiling Asia’s largest economy. Battered by mounting losses on loans to developers including China Evergrande Group, Minsheng’s stock tumbled 31% in the 12 months through last week -- the worst performance in the 155-member Bloomberg World Banks Index.

Chinese developer Guangzhou R&F Properties Co. succeeded in delaying payment on a dollar bond due Thursday despite buying back only 16% of the note, underscoring the company’s liquidity shortage, Bloomberg News reported. The firm will repurchase $116.4 million of a $725 million note under a tender offer, according to a company filing to the Hong Kong exchange Tuesday. The company last month said it had planned to set aside about $300 million for the buyback. As part of the offer, bondholders agreed to extend repayment on the remaining principal by six months.

Cities across China are imposing tougher restrictions to try to control new outbreaks of COVID-19, with Tianjin battling the highly contagious Omicron variant which has been detected to have been transmitted locally in two other provinces, Reuters reported. A Tianjin official told a Tuesday press briefing that 49 domestically transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms have been detected during the latest outbreak. The city of 14 million people, around 100km (62 miles) from Beijing, is now implementing tough controls to stop the coronavirus from spreading, especially to neighbouring Beijing.