Liquidators for Evergrande Group, the failed Chinese property giant, are ‌seeking 57 billion yuan ($8.4 billion) in damages from PwC, accusing it of being negligent in its auditing work, a Hong Kong court was told on Monday, Reuters reported. Potential damages would come on top of hefty fines imposed on the global auditing group by mainland ​Chinese and Hong Kong authorities after Evergrande collapsed with more than $300 billion of liabilities, becoming one of ​the biggest casualties of China's property sector crisis.

China's growth lost momentum in April, with industrial output cooling and retail sales sinking to over three-year lows as the world's second-biggest economy wrestled with higher energy costs from the Iran war and persistently weak domestic demand, Reuters reported. Better-than-expected exports and China's domestic fuel-pricing controls have helped weather the energy shock, but ‌higher input costs threaten to squeeze already weak factory margins and further dampen consumer spending if the conflict drags on.

By any measure, Tom Hu should be in default on a $730,000 bank loan for his plastics business in China. He barely brings in enough revenue to pay expenses and can’t cover the debt costs. Yet rather than calling in the loan, his bank lets him defer payments — keeping him afloat, while avoiding another past-due loan on its books. Stories like Hu’s are playing out across China as banks grapple with a growing pile of bad debt. It’s impossible to quantify the true extent of the problem, though most economists say the ratio of bad loans is significantly higher than the 1.5% official rate.

China’s exports and imports each set monthly records in April, further cementing the country as the world’s leading trading nation as Beijing prepares to welcome President Trump for a summit this week with Xi Jinping, China’s leader, the New York Times reported. China also ran a trade surplus — the excess of exports over imports — of $84.8 billion last month, according to data released on Saturday by the General Administration of Customs. However, that surplus did not set a record.

China's financial regulator advised the country’s largest lenders to temporarily suspend new loans to five refineries recently sanctioned by the US over their ties to Iranian oil, Bloomberg News reported. The National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA) asked banks to review their exposure and business dealings with firms, including Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery, one of China’s largest private refiners, while awaiting further guidance. For now, banks have been guided not to extend new yuan-denominated credit, though they have also been told not to call in existing loans.

Saddled by billions in crushing debt owed to Beijing, the Zambian government helped a Chinese-owned mining giant cover up one of the worst mining pollution incidents in the country’s history, according to an investigation by a U.S. House Select Committee on China, the Wall Street Journal reported.