Headlines

A growing number of residents in Seoul are falling into irrecoverable debt, with new city data showing that people in their 60s and older now make up the majority of personal bankruptcy applicants, The Korea Herald reported. Six out of every 10 individuals who sought personal bankruptcy assistance through the Seoul Financial Welfare Counseling Center last year were aged 60 or above, according to a report released Tuesday. The center analyzed 1,192 valid bankruptcy applications filed in 2025 as part of its annual review of bankruptcy counseling cases.

Courts in South Korea will use a new set of guidelines in rehabilitation hearings to write off people’s crypto debts in an attempt to stop citizens from going bankrupt, DLNews.com reported. The new rules will see three courts, opened this month in the cities of Daejeon, Daegu, and Gwangju, exclude debts incurred from stock or cryptocurrency investments from liquidation calculations. And this, in turn, will reduce the overall amount debtors need to pay their creditors in personal rehabilitation proceedings, South Korean media outlet EToday reported.

Corporate dispute appellate tribunal NCLAT has set aside an appeal filed by Reliance Realty seeking insolvency proceedings against Altruist Customer Management, the Economic Times of India reported. A three-member bench of the appellate tribunal upheld the order of the Delhi-based National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) which had rejected the insolvency plea after it observed a pre-existing dispute between the parties. The NCLT, on October 5, 2024, dismissed the plea after it observed a dispute of over Rs 24.34 crore.

The emerging shock of climbing oil prices rumbled through Asia, where countries, rich and poor, tried to contain the economic fallout from the escalating war in the Middle East, the New York Times reported. South Korea announced on Monday it would cap prices at the pump for the first time in nearly 30 years. In India, the city of Pune has temporarily suspended gas-based cremations, asking customers to use wood or electricity instead.

A surge in ​energy prices since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran piles further pressure on the retail sector ‌in Europe, already struggling with weak consumer demand and diminished spending power, Reuters reported. Shares in retailers, from Zara-owner Inditex to Britain's Marks & Spencer, fell on Monday as investors and analysts expected a knock-on impact from higher petrol and gas prices, even as the sector has barely recovered from the inflation cycle triggered ​by spiking gas prices after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

China's exports jumped nearly 22% in the first two months of the year from a year earlier, powered by a surge in shipments of computer chips, autos and electronics, the Associated Press reported. The export figures released by China’s customs agency on Tuesday were much better than economists had forecast. They far exceeded the 6.6% annual pace of growth recorded in December. Shipments to the U.S. fell 11% in January and February, narrowing from a 30% drop in December. Exports to the European Union increased almost 28% while those to Latin America climbed 16%.

The Canadian auto industry has been rocked by President Donald Trump’s abandonment of subsidies for electric vehicles and embrace of tariffs, the Washington Post reported. Major automakers have abandoned planned vehicles and delayed the start of new ones, battering Jahn Engineering and scores of outfits like it in Canada’s automotive heartland. “This is definitely the worst I’ve seen it in 42 years,” said Louis Jahn, the company’s president. “We’re just trying to stay alive.” Trump’s hostility to his northern neighbor is not helping.

Laurentian University is freezing new admissions to four programs because they failed to meet requirements set in place by the Ontario Universities Council on Quality Assurance, the school announced on Friday, CBC.ca reported. The four programs are criminal justice, criminology, interdisciplinary studies, and equity, diversity and human rights. Laurentian initially created the four programs as majors between 2015 and 2017, Alain Simard, the university’s interim provost and vice-president of academics, told CBC News.

The Trump administration has reached a tentative deal to drop criminal charges against a Turkish bank over whether it had done business with Iranian entities, saying it deserved leniency because of Turkey’s help in negotiating the release of hostages from the Hamas attack in Israel in October 2023, the New York Times reported. The proposed settlement for the state-run bank, Halkbank, would bring an end to a case in which prosecutors had charged it with illicitly transferring about $20 billion worth of otherwise restricted Iranian funds.

Millions of households are facing higher water bills after five of Britain’s biggest suppliers were allowed to raise charges to help fund debt costs, The Telegraph reported. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had decided to allow Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, South East Water, Southern Water and Wessex Water to increase customers’ bills by an extra 2.2pc on average. This is on top of previous bill increases allowed by Ofwat.