Economists predict China will start adding fiscal stimulus in early 2022 after the country’s top officials said their key goals for the coming year include counteracting growth pressures and stabilizing the economy, Bloomberg News reported. Curbs on the property industry are expected to remain, while there could be fewer regulatory surprises compared with sudden moves in 2021 to rein in sectors from technology to education and entertainment, the economists said.

The defaults and slow-moving crises of companies in China’s property sector isn’t just hurting bond-holders and people waiting for their apartments - thousands of small suppliers of everything from tiles to cleaning services are waiting to get paid by the likes of China Evergrande Group, Bloomberg News reported. Feng Guoxun’s company is one such supplier. The 36-year-old says his advertising company is owed $200,000 by property developers including Evergrande, with those unpaid debts pushing him to the brink of bankruptcy.

For weeks, global markets have been watching the struggles of China Evergrande, a teetering real estate giant weighed down by $300 billion or more in obligations that just barely seemed able to make its required payments to global investors. On Thursday, three days after a deadline passed leaving bondholders with nothing but silence from the company, a major credit ratings firm declared that Evergrande was in default, the New York Times reported. Instead of resolving questions about the fate of the Chinese behemoth, the announcement only deepened them.

China’s central bank is trying to restrain the rise of the yuan after the currency hit a 2 1/2-year high against the dollar, the Associated Press reported. Commercial banks were ordered Thursday to increase the amount of their foreign currency deposits that are held as reserves for the second time this year. That reduces the amount available for trading, making it easier for Beijing to manage the exchange rate. The People’s Bank of China is trying to make the yuan’s state-set exchange rate more flexible and market-oriented but has intervened over the past year to restrain its rise.

A group of Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. bondholders is close to signing non-disclosure agreements with the developer in a move that would pave the way for discussions around a potential financing deal for the beleaguered firm, Bloomberg News reported. The creditor group is being advised by Lazard Ltd. An announcement about the agreements could come as early as Thursday morning in Hong Kong, one of the people said. Lazard is seeking more bondholders to join the group. The signing of NDAs is a crucial step as it would allow creditors to access data and information they haven’t yet seen.

HNA Group Co. has officially handed over control of its core airline operations to Liaoning Fangda Group Industrial Co., marking the end of an era for the Chinese conglomerate as it continues to restructure one of the country’s biggest piles of corporate debt, Bloomberg News reported. Gu Gang, head of a government taskforce in charge of HNA’s restructuring, will no longer serve as the group’s leading secretary for the Communist Party after the key handover of Hainan Airlines Holding Co., the company said in a statement on social media Wednesday.

Some offshore bondholders of China Evergrande Group did not receive coupon payments by the end of a 30-day grace period, five people with knowledge of the matter said, pushing the cash-strapped property developer closer to formal default, Reuters reported. Adding to a liquidity crisis in China's once bubbling property market, smaller peer Kaisa Group Holdings (1638.HK) was also unlikely to meet its $400 million offshore debt deadline on Tuesday.

China’s exports rose by double digits in November but growth declined, while imports accelerated in a sign of stronger domestic demand, the Associated Press reported. Exports rose 21.4% over a year earlier to $325.5 billion, decelerating from October’s 27.1% growth, customs data showed Tuesday. Imports surged 31.7% to $253.8 billion, up from the previous month’s 20.6% rate. China’s exports have been boosted by foreign demand at a time when other global competitors are hampered by anti-coronavirus controls.

China Evergrande Group’s stocks and bonds fell to historic lows, after Chinese authorities stepped up their involvement in the company’s affairs and the indebted developer moved closer to a reorganization of its hefty international debt, the Wall Street Journal reported. Evergrande was also running up against a payment deadline, as it has done several times in recent months. The 30-day grace period on $82.5 million in interest payments from two sets of dollar bonds issued by Evergrande’s Scenery Journey Ltd. unit ends Monday, said Iris Chen, a credit analyst at Nomura. Ms.

Troubled Chinese developer Yango Group Co. received a reprieve after its parent company got bondholders’ approval to delay payment of a local bond due next week, Bloomberg News reported. Holders of the 400 million yuan ($63 million) bond issued by Fujian Yango Group, parent of Yango Group, on Friday supported a proposal to extend principal payment of the debt due Dec. 7 by a year, according to a filing on the Shanghai Clearing House. The agreement, reached at a second meeting with bondholders, came after negotiations failed last week.