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More than 160 people have died from the cold in Afghanistan this month in the worst winter in more than a decade, authorities said on Thursday, as residents described being unable to afford fuel to heat homes in temperatures well below freezing.

"162 people have died due to cold weather since January 10 until now," said Shafiullah Rahimi, a spokesperson for the Minister of Disaster Management. About 84 of the deaths had taken place in the last week.

The coldest winter in 15 years, which has seen temperatures dip as low as -34 degrees Celsius (-29.2 degrees Fahrenheit), has hit Afghanistan in the middle of a severe economic crisis.

Many aid groups have partially suspended operations in recent weeks due to a Taliban administration ruling that most female NGO workers could not work, leaving agencies unable to operate many programmes in the conservative country.

In a snowy field in the west of the Afghan capital, children rummaged through rubbish looking for plastic to burn to help their families, unable to afford wood or coal.

Nearby, 30-year-old shopkeeper Ashour Ali lives with his family in a concrete basement, where his five children shiver from cold.

"This year, the weather is extremely cold and we couldn't buy coal for ourselves," he said, adding the small amount he makes from his shop was no longer enough for fuel.

"The children wake up from the cold and cry at night until the morning. They are all sick. So far, we have not received any help and we do not have enough bread to eat most of the time."

During a visit to Kabul this week, U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths said the world body was seeking exemptions to the ban on most female aid workers that was coming at one of the most vulnerable times for many Afghans.

"The Afghan winter … as everybody in Afghanistan knows is the big messenger of doom for so many families in Afghanistan as we go through these many years of humanitarian need … we see some of the consequences in loss of life," Griffiths told Reuters. (Reuters)

China's reopened borders and renewed focus on boosting the sagging economy have brightened the deals outlook, with bankers starting to field interest for mergers, acquisitions and fundraising involving the world's second-largest economy.

The prospect of a revival in deals comes as Chinese policymakers try to restore private-sector confidence and growth, which has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic and a sweeping regulatory crackdown.

Although consumer, retail and travel-related firms are expected to bounce back after an almost three-year lockdown, advisers say sectors linked to strengthening China's economic prospects will be at the centre of dealmaking this year.

"We see strategic sectors, hardcore industrial technology, automation, semiconductor-related to be a focus for outbound activity," said Mark Webster, partner and head of Singapore at BDA Partners, an Asia-focused investment banking adviser.

"Healthcare opportunities are proving of interest, both domestically and outbound, including in Southeast Asia," he added. "Geographically, Indonesia in particular is attracting a lot of attention."

Australia has also already emerged on China's radar amid hopes of a diplomatic thaw between the two countries. In one such deal, Tianqi Lithium (002466.SZ) and IGO's (IGO.AX) joint venture are bidding for lithium miner Essential Metals.

Outbound M&A involving companies in China halved last year to the lowest point since 2006, Refinitiv data showed, which pulled total Chinese company-led dealmaking to its lowest point in nine years.

Chinese companies' capital markets deals slipped 44% in the same period, according to Refinitiv data. That slump crimped the fees earned by Wall Street banks and forced some of them to cut jobs, mainly those linked to Chinese deals, in the past few months.

"We have had a lot more requests for proposals from companies in the past two to three weeks," said Li He, a capital markets partner at law firm Davis Polk who travelled to Beijing to meet clients the day after China's border reopened on Jan. 8.

"That is not just because of travel but people think that a reopening is good for the economy, good for capital markets and good for deal execution," He said.

The reopening coincided with a thaw in regulatory scrutiny that had seen overseas Chinese IPOs grind to a halt in the past 18 months amid proposed rule changes, and the tech sector struggle with a range of new regulations.

Until the border reopened, travel from Hong Kong into mainland China had been tightly restricted for about three years - a sharp change for advisers for whom weekly trips to China had been common.

Opened borders could lead to a pick up in deals involving private equity funds later in 2023 as firms head to China to find buyers for their assets, according to Bagrin Angelov, head of China cross-border M&A at Chinese investment bank CICC.

Chinese private equity activity was worth $24.1 billion in 2022, down from $57.8 billion a year before, Pitchbook data showed.

"Six months or one year before the deal, private equity firms would already start meeting potential buyers to try to warm up the interest and try to understand who could be interested," Beijing-based Angelov said.

"For them certainty is very important, and they really need to meet buyers very early on," he continued. "Because of opening up, we expect an uptick in overseas disposal of private equity to Chinese buyers." (Reuters)

Sharp one-sided currency moves cannot be tolerated, Japan's top finance diplomat Masato Kanda told Reuters, reaffirming Tokyo's determination to intervene in the foreign exchange market to curb any speculative or significant yen moves.

"Sharp, one-sided moves as seen last year are not desirable or cannot be tolerated from the viewpoints of the people's livelihood and corporate activity," Kanda said on Wednesday, referring to Japan's first yen-buying intervention in 24 years last year.

Kanda oversaw Japan's currency intervention conducted last year to prop up the yen after it fell around 30% to 32-year lows near 152 to the dollar. The yen has rebounded since then and it is now trading around 130 to the dollar.

"There's no change to this thinking from now on as well," Kanda, who is vice finance minister for international affairs, said in an interview, when asked whether sharp yen rises warrant action.

Kanda emphasised that the government aims to keep currency moves stable, while the Bank of Japan (BOJ) has independence in guiding monetary policy and focuses on achieving price stability.

"Generally speaking, the BOJ targets price stability, while we aim for currency stability," he said.

"We are communicating firmly with the BOJ as well as other central banks. But policy itself is independent," Kanda said of the central bank's monetary policy.

The BOJ's ultra-loose monetary policy has drawn criticism from some analysts as having triggered an unwelcome yen plunge last year that inflated the cost of raw material imports.

Separately, Tokyo plans to spearhead discussions on ramping up a regional multilateral currency swaps arrangement called Chiang-Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM), to prepare against future financial crises and natural disasters, Kanda said. (Reuters)

Pakistan has sought support from Washington to unlock a stalled International Monetary Fund programme that would release $1.1 billion to its strained economy as the country rebuilds after last year's devastating floods, Dawn newspaper said on Thursday.

The IMF and Pakistan signed a $6 billion bailout in 2019, that was topped up with another $1.1 billion last year, but that came with conditions attached, aimed at reducing the budget deficit before the loan is released.

With interest rates already at 17%, inflation hitting 24.5% in December, and foreign reserves barely sufficient to cover three weeks of imports, the South Asian nation is in dire need of external financing.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar met a visiting U.S. Treasury delegation on Wednesday. He told them that Pakistan would honour its international commitments and was in the process of taking "very tough decisions" such as increasing natural gas and electricity prices, Dawn reported, citing sources.

"However, he pointed out, Pakistan required breathing space as the industry and agriculture had passed through most challenging times after the devastating floods," the report in the Pakistani English-language newspaper said.

The finance ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last year's severe floods submerged swathes of the country, killed at least 1,700 people, and battered its already strained economy.

Rebuilding costs were estimated at $16.3 billion and international donors this month pledged to finance more than half of that. (Reuters)