Markets may have overshot in recent days when placing bets on the peak for European Central Bank interest rates, according to Governing Council member Francois Villeroy de Galhau, Bloomberg News reported. The ECB is “in no way” obliged to raise borrowing costs at every meeting between now and September, with the deposit rate already at a level that restricts the euro-zone economy, the Bank of France Governor told the Les Echos newspaper. The Bank of France confirmed Villeroy’s comments to Bloomberg.

Germany’s government is in talks to pay more than €20 billion ($21 billion) for the local unit of power grid operator TenneT Holding BV in a deal that could mark the starting point for a consolidation of the country’s power grids, Bloomberg News reported. Officials are hashing out the structure of a potential deal with Dutch state-controlled TenneT, and negotiations could take several months, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The deal would come on top of an equity need of about €15 billion to upgrade the net.

Europe’s biggest economies beat expectations as business activity returned to growth, boosting the chances they can stave off recessions, Bloomberg News reported. Gauges of private output in Germany and France both signaled expansion in February after pullbacks in January, while the UK’s purchasing managers’ index showed the first positive reading in six months — jumping to 53 from 48.5. In the 20-nation euro zone, activity rose at the fastest pace since May 2022.

Financial leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) will meet on Feb. 23 to discuss measures against Russia that will put pressure on it to end the Ukraine war, Japan's Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Japan will chair the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the G7 nations in the Indian city of Bengaluru. The meeting will come almost a year since Russia invaded Ukraine, calling it a "special military operation". The war has raged on despite a slew of punitive measures G7 and other countries have taken against Russia.

Russia’s economy contracted 2.1% last year, defying the worst fears of a major recession as surging commodity exports helped offset the impact of US and European sanctions imposed over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported. The preliminary result was better than the 3% decline officials expected as recently as the early fall and far short of the 10% drop some forecasters saw when the sanctions first hit just over a year ago.

Polish banks suffered a potentially costly setback in the long-running saga over Swiss Franc mortgages after an adviser to the European Union’s top court said they can’t pass on extra fees to customers whose interest payments were deemed unfair, Bloomberg News reported. In cases where contested mortgage deals are voided by local courts, lenders can’t claim payments beyond reimbursements of the loan principal, Advocate General Anthony Collins of the EU Court of Justice said in a non-binding opinion Thursday.

Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill signaled policy makers are ready to reduce the speed of their interest rate increases, saying there’s a risk of “overtightening” if the pace over the past few months is maintained, Bloomberg news reported. The official who sits on the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee also said the labor market has shown signs of loosening, a suggestion that upward pressure on inflation from pay rises may be easing.

Activist investors are renewing their years-long efforts to break up some of Germany's most venerable companies, seeing streamlining as a promising route to reviving share prices as Europe's top economy emerges from the energy crisis, Reuters reported. This week Brenntag, founded in 1874 as an egg trader in Berlin, became the latest target of investors, who called for the chemicals distributor to spin off its specialties unit. Bayer BAYGn.DE, Fresenius FREG.DE and Thyssenkrupp TKAG.DE have seen similar demands to release value.

Thousands of people went on strike and took to the streets Thursday to protest French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the country’s retirement age, turning up the pressure on his government as parliamentary debates over the measures intensify, the Wall Street Journal reported. For the fifth time in four weeks, teachers, train drivers, nurses, oil-refinery staff and other workers marched in demonstrations from Paris to Marseille. The protests are aimed at pressuring the Macron government to reverse a plan to raise the retirement age to 64 years old from 62 by 2030.

The number of firms falling into insolvency increased in January against the same month last year, according to official figures, the Independent reported. Total company insolvencies in England and Wales hit 1,671 over the first month of 2023, the Insolvency Service said. It represented a 7% rise against January 2022 and was 11% above pre-pandemic levels from 2020. Experts said the rise pointed towards the toll of higher borrowing costs and continued elevated levels of inflation for businesses.