China

The People’s Bank of China is drafting preliminary policies to give private businesses better access to funding as authorities ramp up efforts to boost economic growth, Bloomberg News reported. Central bank leaders and officials from other financial watchdogs met with representatives from more than 10 banks as well as private companies, including property developers and manufacturers, on Wednesday, according to local media reports.

China is flashing new signs of financial stress almost on a daily basis, with a property giant making fresh efforts to avoid default and a state-run bad debt manager suffering a bond slump on worries about its own health, Bloomberg News reported. In the latest indication of its liquidity struggle, Country Garden Holdings Co. has proposed a grace period of 40 calendar days for a maturing yuan bond as it seeks to win creditor support to stretch payment into 2026.

China’s largest banks are preparing to cut interest rates on existing mortgages and deposits, the latest state-directed measures to shore up growth in the world’s second-largest economy, Bloomberg News reported. An announcement that big state-owned lenders are reducing rates on the majority of the nation’s 38.6 trillion yuan ($5.3 trillion) of outstanding mortgages may come as soon as Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter. The reductions will only affect loans on first homes, two of the people said. Lenders such as Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd.

China will extend preferential tax policies for foreign nationals working in the country through to the end of 2027, the finance ministry said on Tuesday, in a boon to foreign firms struggling to attract talent post-COVID, Reuters reported. The government proposed scrapping the provision of non-taxable allowances for foreign workers in 2022, but decided to extend the scheme on a review basis until the end of this year.

China's surprise move to slow the pace of mainland initial public offerings (IPOs) in an attempt to bolster the secondary market will cloud the fundraising plans of hundreds of companies and will weigh on the economy, bankers and lawyers said, Reuters reported. The regulatory decision was part of a package of measures unveiled by Beijing over the weekend to revive a lagging stock market and boost investor confidence in the world's second-largest economy, which is fast losing its growth momentum.

China Evergrande Group delayed key votes on its offshore-debt restructuring plan just hours before they were to occur Monday, adding to uncertainty in a protracted process to finalize one of the country’s biggest restructurings ever, Bloomberg News reported. The distressed developer, at the epicenter of a property crisis that’s unleashed record delinquencies in a threat to China’s financial markets, delayed the meetings for the group and some units to Sept. 25-26, it said in a filing.

Embattled Chinese developer Country Garden (2007.HK) said on Monday its $100-billion project in Malaysia was proceeding as planned and it had sufficient assets, despite concerns about its financial strength amid debt woes, Reuters reported. The comment by China's largest private developer came after it missed two dollar coupon payments this month totaling $22.5 million, fuelling fears that the country's property debt crisis could hamper a broader economic recovery and spill overseas.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said the pace of economic activity in China has been a disappointment that could cloud Japan's economic outlook, Reuters reported. China's July data, such as retail sales, business investment and industrial production were "on the weak side," Ueda said, according to the text posted on the BOJ's website on Monday.

Embattled property developer China Evergrande Group said on Friday it has "adequately" fulfilled the resumption guidance issued by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and made an application to resume trading in shares on Aug. 28, Reuters reported. Once China's top-selling developer, Evergrande has become the poster child for an unprecedented debt crisis in the country's property sector, which accounts for roughly a quarter of the economy, after facing a liquidity crunch in mid-2021.

Chinese developer Country Garden Holdings has delayed from Friday until Aug. 31 the deadline for holders of a private yuan bond to vote on its new plan to extend its repayment schedule, a filing seen by Reuters showed. The deadline has been postponed to give bondholders more time to consider the plan, according to the filing. China’s largest private developer earlier this month missed two dollar coupon payments totalling $22.5 million, raising fears that the country’s deepening property debt crisis will hamper the financial sector and a broader economic recovery.