The Reserve Bank of Australia's latest Financial Stability Review indicates that total company insolvencies as a share of operating companies have stabilised over the past year, returning to their long-run averages, AccountingTimes.com.au reported. The RBA report said that easing cash flow pressures and recovering domestic demand have supported company viability. It noted that insolvencies saw a sharp increase in the years following the pandemic due to a catch-up effect from the exceptionally low number of insolvencies during the COVID-19 period, when temporary support measures were in place.

Australia and the European Union signed a free trade agreement on Tuesday after eight years of negotiations, removing tariffs on almost all goods and potentially easing EU access to Australian critical minerals, Reuters reported. However, some Australian agricultural exports, including beef and ‌sheep meat, will face quotas. Australian farmers criticised the pact for offering what they called "subpar" access to the bloc, while French farmers argued the ‌quotas were too generous. The deal follows intensified talks amid sharply higher U.S.

Japan's core consumer inflation slowed below the central bank's ​2% target in February for the first time in nearly four years, data showed, as government fuel subsidies offset rising import costs ‌from a weak yen and surging oil prices from the Iran war, Reuters reported. While the reading is unlikely to upend the Bank of Japan's monetary tightening plan, the downward price pressure from government intervention will make the bank's communication more difficult as it seeks to raise still-low borrowing costs.

A unit of Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison said on Tuesday it had widened its claims in ‌an international arbitration case against Panama, saying damages had now risen to more ‌than $2 billion, Reuters reported. Panama Ports Company, which for nearly three decades operated the Balboa and Cristobal terminals near the ​Panama Canal, said it had supplemented its claims in proceedings under the International Chamber of Commerce's arbitration rules, a month after what it described as the state's illegal takeover of two port terminals and company property.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), New Delhi Bench, has permitted the withdrawal of corporate insolvency resolution proceedings (CIRP) initiated against ATS Heights Private Limited, the developer of the ATS Knightsbridge project, in exercise of its powers under Section 12A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), the Hindustan Times reported. The tribunal, through its order dated March 13, allowed an application seeking withdrawal of the insolvency proceedings and dismissed the company's petition as withdrawn.

While there is currently no countrywide legal route to a financial fresh start in China, some provinces and cities have begun piloting local equivalents of a bankruptcy law, The Straits Times reported. That gap has drawn growing attention in China, where scholars, judges and policymakers – including during the country’s national parliamentary meetings in March – have renewed calls for a nationwide personal bankruptcy system to give failed entrepreneurs a legal way to start again. China adopted an enterprise bankruptcy law in 2006, but it applies only to companies, not individuals.

For decades, New Zealand has relied on inflating the housing market to engineer a recovery during downturns, but the playbook has failed this time, putting policymakers ⁠in a quandary just as the Middle East war adds a new layer of uncertainty, Reuters reported. Even after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand aggressively slashed the benchmark interest rate from 5.5% to 2.25%, house prices still languish some 20% below their pandemic peak, dismantling the wealth effect that long anchored the economy.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has nominated Shin Hyun-song, a senior Bank for International Settlements official, as the country’s next central bank governor, the Wall Street Journal reported. Shin will replace departing Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong, whose four-year term ends on April 20, Lee’s office said in a statement on Sunday. The nominee joined the BIS in 2014 and currently serves as economic adviser and head of the monetary and economic department at the Switzerland-based institution, often known as a bank for central banks.