By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Asia Pacific stocks were mostly down on Friday morning, as concerns about the impact from China Evergrande Group’s (HK:) financial woes .

China’s edged down 0.17% by 9:57 PM ET (1:57 AM GMT) while the edged down 0.20%. Although investors breathed a sigh of relief as concerns over China Evergrande’s debt woes receded somewhat, it remains unclear if and how the developer will pay the more than $300 billion of liabilities that it owes. There is also uncertainty about how the authorities will respond to any possible default.

Hong Kong’s fell 0.64%.

Japan’s jumped 1.73% after returning from a holiday. Data released earlier in the day said that the grew 0% year-on-year in August. The national CPI contracted 0.4% and 0.2% respectively.

The data also showed that the for September was 51.2.

South Korea’s inched up 0.04% while in Australia, the edged down 0.11%.

Investors were also optimistic that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to start hiking interest rates in 2022 was a sign of confidence in the economic recovery from COVID-19. The central bank handed down its on Wednesday.

Clarity from the Fed has allowed risk assets to flourish, Loomis Sayles & Co. portfolio manager Elaine Stokes told Bloomberg.

“What they did is tell us that they feel really good about the economy.”

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, Governor Michelle Bowman and Vice Chairman Richard Clarida are due to discuss the economic recovery from COVID-19 later in the day.

The inflation data that was published on Thursday were lower than we expected. September’s was 60.5 and the was 54.5. The was 54.4.

However, should inflationary pressures continue, it will pose a risk to investors’ optimism if it reduces confidence in this economic recovery.

Across the Atlantic, the kept its interest rate unchanged at 0.10% as it handed down its policy decision on Thursday. However, the BOE kept open the possibility of a rate rise in 2021. This resulted in 10-year gilts being reduced.