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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.

Germany's economy stagnated in the second quarter from the previous three months, showing no sign of recovery from a winter recession and cementing its position as one of the world's weakest major economies, Reuters reported. The figure of zero growth for the second quarter was in line with a first estimate published in late July. Year on year, adjusted GDP contracted by 0.2% in the second quarter. Quarter on quarter, economic activity had fallen by 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2022 and by 0.1% in the first quarter of 2023.

Interest rates in the European Union will need to stay high “as long as necessary” to slow still-high inflation, Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, said Friday, the Associated Press reported. “While progress is being made," she said, “the fight against inflation is not yet won.” Lagarde’s remarks, at an annual conference of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, came against the backdrop of the ECB's efforts to manage a stagnating economy with still-high inflation.

Britain dodged a recession last year despite a historic energy price shock and an investor revolt that forced out the prime minister. Recent data have raised questions about whether it will be so lucky this time around, Bloomberg News reported. Surveys of purchasing managers and retailers both point toward a sudden slowdown in recent weeks. More companies are taking steps to address financial distress. Even the jobs market, which remained strong through the pandemic, is showing signs of weakening.

Mortgage data from Canada’s two biggest banks are painting a picture of homeowners straining under high borrowing costs, Bloomberg News reported. Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest lender, disclosed that 43% of its Canadian residential mortgages had an amortization period of longer than 25 years, as of July. That’s up from 40% a year earlier, and just 26% in January 2022. Canadian banks have allowed customers to stretch payments for longer periods to help them bring down their monthly payments after a rapid rise in rates.

The Adani Group said cash and profit generated from its sprawling infrastructure business can cover all the debt maturing each year in the coming decade, messaging that’s part of the Indian conglomerate’s latest effort to shore up investor confidence months after a damaging short seller attack, Bloomberg News reported. In a credit report released Thursday, the power-to-port conglomerate founded by billionaire Gautam Adani said its cash flow generated from business operations and balances stood at 778.9 billion rupees ($9.4 billion) as of end-March.

Mastercard and crypto exchange Binance will end their four crypto card programmes in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Bahrain as of Sept. 22, a spokesperson for Mastercard said via email yesterday, Reuters reported. The Binance cards allow users to make payments in traditional currencies, funded by their cryptocurrency holdings on the exchange. Mastercard's website also lists partnerships with crypto exchanges including Gemini. The decision will not impact any of Mastercard's other crypto card programmes, the spokesperson said. Binance is facing legal and regulatory challenges. U.S.

The Panama Canal is, in many ways, the Panama economy. It hands over about $1 out of every $4 the government takes in, generating a constant stream of cash that flows through all corners of the small country. So when dozens of container ships began backing up outside the canal recently, the result of a drought so fierce that water levels have plunged to dangerously low levels, it got the attention of traders on Wall Street, Bloomberg News reported. For days, they’ve sold Panamanian government bonds, making them one of the worst performers in Latin America.