Bank of China Ltd. more than doubled its money set aside for bad loans as profit growth cooled to the slowest pace in five quarters on weakness in the economy, Bloomberg News reported. Provisions for potential soured debt climbed to 12.7 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) in the second quarter, up 116 percent from a year earlier, based on half-year figures released by the Beijing-based company yesterday. Net income rose 8.5 percent to 44.4 billion yuan, the earnings statement showed.

China said it will curb executive pay and perks at major state-controlled companies as part of an austerity program intended to curb government largess, The Wall Street Journal reported. The official Xinhua News Agency said Monday that President Xi Jinping called for the government to more tightly regulate executive salaries at state-owned enterprises and to make adjustment for "unreasonably high" compensation. He also called on SOEs to rein in other compensation such as spending on cars and accommodations, Xinhua said.

Government investigators in China have found the Mercedes-Benz unit of Daimler, the German automaker, in violation of antitrust price rules, the Chinese state news media reported on Monday. The announcement was the latest in a spate of inquiries over pricing and sales policies that have raised pressure on foreign corporations across China, the International New York Times reported.

China’s state-owned airlines have had a turbulent year and are warning of first-half earnings to match when they report later this month, the Financial Times reported. With the bulk of their earnings in renminbi and fuel and aircraft costs denominated in US dollars, China’s big three airlines benefited from the Chinese currency’s steady appreciation against the greenback over the past decade. But over recent weeks, Air China, China Eastern and China Southern have all issued profit warnings, citing foreign exchange losses from the renminbi’s unexpected weakening earlier this year.

China is trying to regain control of the cash flowing across its leaky borders and the effects will be felt around the world, The Wall Street Journal reported. Beijing technically bans its citizens from buying overseas properties and stocks, and limits the money they can transfer abroad to $50,000 a year. Despite these rules, wealthy Chinese have found ways to move their money across the border, making them the biggest international buyers of properties in places like the U.S. and fueling a boom in Macau's casinos.

Chinese lending unexpectedly and drastically slowed in July to the lowest level since the depths of the global financial crisis, as a weak property market appeared to drive down demand for new loans, despite recent moves to ease credit, the International New York Times reported. A broad measure of new credit was 273.1 billion renminbi, or $44.3 billion, in July, the central bank reported on its website Wednesday.

China’s slumping property market is fueling speculation the industry is set for a shakeout as small developers face difficulty raising funds to pay off debt, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Yield premiums on Chinese real estate bonds denominated in dollars have jumped 35 basis points this month to 582 basis points over Treasuries, the sharpest increase among emerging Asian countries, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes. That compares with a 19 basis-point advance for Indonesian builders.

A reluctance among some developers in China to sell units at prices lower than they could fetch just months ago threatens to cause a swelling in unsold properties, Bloomberg News reported today. The worsening glut would extend a slide in construction that’s already put a drag on the world’s second-largest economy, and counter policy makers’ efforts to stimulate the real-estate industry with loosened rules. In Nanjing, eastern China, nine housing projects originally planned for sale in the first half of 2014 were held for later this year, consulting firm Everyday Network Co. says.

China's overseas borrowings are leaving the country increasingly vulnerable to a rise in U.S. interest rates, potentially creating funding problems for some companies and tighter conditions for the financial system overall, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The world's second-largest economy largely rode out the 2008 global financial crisis, shielded in part by a surge in domestic bank lending and capital controls that protected it from a sharp reversal in global money flows.

China’s government is authorizing developer debt sales for the first time in five years in a bid to avoid bankruptcies as the property market cools, Bloomberg News reported. Jiangsu Future Land Co., a builder of homes in eastern China, sold 2 billion yuan ($323 million) of five-year AA rated bonds last week to yield 8.9 percent. That’s less than the average 9.73 percent on trust products that many developers relied on for financing after authorities stopped approving onshore note issuance in 2009.