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.

China's central bank has asked domestic lenders to scale back outward bond investments according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, the latest in series of increasingly strong steps to support the yuan, Reuters reported. The directive, issued this week, is for banks to restrict southbound purchases under the Bond Connect scheme, and is aimed at limiting the supply of yuan offshore, the sources said. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to talk to the media. The PBOC declined to comment on the content of the window guidance.

Global investors fleeing China have one simple message for the country's leadership: put prudence aside for a short while, and start spending big, Reuters reported. As they go from hope to disappointment and now capitulation, investors are losing patience with what they see as incoherent, slow and stingy measures by China to revive its sputtering economy and defuse a deepening property crisis.