Ukraine's central bank said it would bring in a more flexible exchange rate from Tuesday, relaxing the official peg it has had throughout the war with Russia in a move to boost the economy, Reuters reported. Central Bank Governor Andriy Pyshnyi said financial stability in Ukraine had climbed to a "historic maximum", allowing the central bank to start easing wartime restrictions in a bid to help the economy and businesses. "Compared with July last year, the situation is radically different," Pyshnyi told an online media briefing.

British finance minister Jeremy Hunt on Monday will announce a rise in the minimum wage in his annual Conservative party conference speech, where he is expected to ignore a growing clamour for tax cuts within his party, Reuters reported. The extracts of the speech released by the party made no reference to taxes after Conservative lawmakers and even senior minister Michael Gove have called for tax cuts ahead of an election expected next year. On Saturday, Hunt ruled out near-term tax cuts ahead of a mid-year fiscal statement due on Nov.

Euro-area core inflation eased to its slowest pace in a year, supporting expectations that the European Central Bank will keep interest rates on hold to gauge the impact of its unprecedented campaign of hikes, Bloomberg News reported. Underlying price gains, which strip out energy and food costs, came in at 4.5% in September, Eurostat said Friday. That’s down from 5.3% in August and much less than the 4.8% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Germany has welcomed a show of support from China for the G20 debt restructuring framework for poorer countries in a joint statement after their financial dialogue in Frankfurt over the weekend, Reuters reported. "We welcome the fact that the Chinese side is also committed to this in our Joint Statement, because solutions are inconceivable without China as such an important player in world politics," German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said on Sunday, after his meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.

More than 5,000 new businesses were set up in Wales this summer, according to new research from R3, the UK’s insolvency and restructuring trade body, BusinessNewsWales.com reported. R3’s analysis of data provided by Creditsafe shows there were 5,014 start-ups in Wales over the summer months – an increase of 7.1% on last year’s figure of 4,683. Welsh start-up numbers peaked in August of this year, when 1,693 firms were launched, after falling between June (1,672) and July (1,649). This was a change on the trend in 2022, when numbers decreased during the summer months.

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is exiting Russia by selling its operations there to a new crypto exchange known as CommEX, the Wall Street Journal reported. “As we look toward the future, we recognize that operating in Russia is not compatible with Binance's compliance strategy,” said Noah Perlman, Binance's chief compliance officer. Binance said on Wednesday that "off-boarding" Russian customers would take up to a year. It didn't give financial details of the deal.

Hungary's central bank could not cope with curbing inflation so the government stepped in and helped rein in price growth with its own tools, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said on Thursday, turning up the heat on the bank, Reuters reported. Hungary's inflation, which peaked above an annual 25% in the first quarter, is still the European Union's highest at 16.4% in August but is expected to retreat to around 7% by December. High inflation has come at a big cost, as the economy could end up in recession for the whole of 2023.

Bankers and private credit funds are working on a financing deal of around €1 billion ($1.05 billion) to back a potential buyout of French insurance broker Kereis as the sale process kicks off, Bloomberg News reported. A debt package of that size would equate to around five times Kereis’ approximate €180 million earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Insurance brokers have been a lucrative target for PE firms because of their recurring revenue streams, and due to the fragmentation of the industry.

New Zealand-based Cooks Coffee Company plans to place its Triple Two coffee franchise business in the UK into an insolvency process, VerdictFoodService.com reported. For this, the company intends to appoint administrators for its franchise business, which includes Triple Two Holdings and its subsidiaries. In a statement, Cooks Coffee Company said: “Triple Two was growing rapidly before the Covid-19 pandemic and had shown continuing momentum in FY22.

French grocery delivery startup La Belle Vie is acquiring Frichti, another food delivery service that was placed under court-ordered receivership, TechCrunch.com reported. The court picked La Belle Vie’s offer over three other offers. This is yet another chapter in the tumultuous story of quick commerce and food delivery services in France and Europe. Frichti was started in 2015 and had raised around €100 million over the years to deliver ready-to-eat meals for the lunch break. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the company expanded its offering and started delivering groceries as well.