A Scottish bakery firm has gone bust, leaving the business with a six-figure debt trail, The National reported. Brawsome Bagels entered financial trouble earlier this year, leading to the closure of its takeaway in Glasgow’s west end. Owner Ian Brooke blamed rising costs, technical issues and change in consumer spending. It isn’t clear how many jobs were affected by the closure. But Brooke's firm, Southside Bagels, now has huge debts and owes money to a range of investors, banks and the HMRC.

The inflation rate in Britain held steady in September, defying expectations of a small decline, after as rise in fuel prices offset a slowdown in food inflation, the New York Times reported. Consumer prices overall rose 6.7 percent last month from a year earlier, the same pace as the previous month, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. For the first time in four months, the cost of transportation added to the rate of inflation, because of an increase in gasoline and diesel prices.

Sweden’s Volta Trucks AB is planning to file for bankruptcy following a breakdown in its supply chain, Bloomberg News reported. The decision comes roughly two months after Volta’s battery supplier Proterra Inc. failed, causing the truckmaker to fall short of production targets. The collapse “negatively affected our ability to raise sufficient capital in an already challenging capital-raising environment for electric-vehicle players,” Volta’s board said in a statement. Proterra’s U.S.

The government dropped its pursuit of five former Carillion non-executive directors late last week, hours before a High Court “test case” was due to begin. The Insolvency Service had been seeking disqualification orders that would have prevented five former board members of the construction group, including Philip Green, the long-serving chairman, from acting as directors, but it dropped the civil action on Friday afternoon. A 13-week trial had been due to begin yesterday.

The Bank of England is reviewing its rules that determine when international banks are required to set up a formal subsidiary after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank showed it was easier to seize control of such operations in the event a bank fails, Bloomberg News reported. Silicon Valley Bank operated as a branch in the UK for a decade before regulators finally required it to subsidiarise, Sam Woods, chief executive officer of the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority, said in prepared remarks during the City Banquet at Mansion House.

Cryptocurrency issuer Tether has frozen 32 crypto wallet addresses containing a combined $873,118 it said were linked to "terrorism and warfare" in Israel and Ukraine, the company said on Monday, Reuters reported. Israeli police said last week they had frozen crypto accounts used to solicit donations for Hamas on social media. Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel killed 1,300 people. Tether's first Israel-related freeze was on March 16, 2023, while the first Ukrainian-related freeze was on June 16, 2021, a Tether spokesperson told Reuters via email. TRM Labs, a major U.S.

Britain and South Korea have agreed to extend a period of low or zero tariffs on bilateral trade of products with parts from the European Union, the British government said on Monday, in a boost for the car industry, Reuters reported. Without the two-year extension, British businesses would have faced high tariffs from Jan. 1 on exports of products made using EU components, under so-called rules of origin, and on products shipped via the EU.

Indebted French supermarket chain Casino said on Monday it had agreed an initial deal to sell its stake in Latin American retailer Almacenes Exito to Grupo Calleja. Casino's board on Friday approved a pre-agreement to sell its entire stake in Almacenes Exito to Grupo Calleja, a leading grocery retailer in El Salvador, it said. Casino is in the midst of a restructuring after years of debt-fuelled acquisitions had brought it to the verge of default.

The European Central Bank won’t lower interest rates until September 2024, according to a new poll of economists — suggesting the message from policymakers that cuts won’t come soon is sinking in, Bloomberg News reported. The result of the latest Bloomberg survey is a departure from the previous round, when respondents still saw borrowing costs being lowered in March. Another reduction is foreseen in October. The survey chimes with comments from ECB officials who spoke on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund’s annual meetings in Marrakech in recent days.

Italy’s far-right-led government on Monday approved a budget for next year that aims to bolster public health services, encourage families to have more children and put more money in the pockets of low- and medium-wage earners, the Associated Press reported. Premier Giorgia Meloni said the 24 billion-euro ($25 billion) budget, which includes 5 billion in spending cuts, is in line with the government’s priorities. She described it as both “serious” and “realistic," even as Italy faces an expected increase of 13 billion euros in payments to service its public debt as interest rates increase.