The ruling party is likely to secure a resounding victory in the parliamentary elections, in part thanks to a lack of viable contenders, analysts say, boosting the Abenomics agenda. Nevertheless, growth-expectations remain mixed.

A cyclical correction or a structural shift? Gold’s aggressive recent sell-off has revived the debate about whether the commodity is a legitimate hedge against Armageddon financial forces, while the jury is out on whether fundamental or technical forces are driving the bullion’s price.

The first renminbi (RMB) swap line between China and a G7 central bank – a three-year agreement with the Bank of England (BofE) – is a safety net that will boost the confidence of UK banks to become more actively involved in RMB transactions.

The veracity of official data from China has long been questioned due to inconsistencies, missing key indicators or massaging of the numbers for political reasons. Now the stakes seem higher: the rise in the shadow banking system and question marks over the accuracy of economic and industry data add to fears that calculating systemic leverage in China’s economy is mission impossible.

Banks remain disinterested or wary of Bitcoin but there is a growing acknowledgement that the digital currency’s popularity cannot be overlooked indefinitely, if a recent gathering of the faithful is anything to go by. From trade to settlement, Bitcoin offers plenty of opportunities – and threats – for banks.

While emerging market equities have been taking a battering, their diminutive near-relative frontier market equities have been holding up rather well, seemingly immune to the headwinds buffeting the interconnected jigsaw that makes up the global equities market.

The rapid, seemingly uncontrolled, expansion of China’s shadow banking sector is under intense scrutiny because of the risks it poses to the banking system, and the economy itself, but also because the sector is largely unregulated. Urgent steps are needed to beef up regulatory vigilance as China seeks to engineer a contraction of credit to levered sectors.

Foreign firms with ambitions in China need a smarter strategy to crack the country as the old certainties of double-digit growth, untrammelled markets and low-cost production are replaced by a more complex growth picture, says Ben Simpfendorfer, founder of Silk Road Associates.

Some credit managers are predicting a market rally, at least in the short term, as the recent market sell-off restores value in the bond markets.

Fears are growing that a concentration of bad debt in China’s informal lending or shadow financial sector, is a ticking time-bomb that might not only weigh on economic growth and stoke inflation but could cause a far more damaging banking crisis.