Consumer prices in Britain rose 7.9 percent in June from a year ago, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday, the slowest pace of inflation in more than a year, the New York Times reported. The slowdown, which was greater than economists had expected, will bring some relief to the government following months of inflation repeatedly turning out higher than forecast. The annual rate of price growth slowed from 8.7 percent in May. The decline was driven by a large drop in the price of motor fuels. Food prices rose 17.3 percent in June from the year before.

Public services are in crisis. The NHS is on its knees. The water industry – which is now largely privatised – has failed to invest in infrastructure, and as a result sewage pollution is damaging the environment at an unprecedented rate, the New Statesman reported. Thousands of pupils have been taken out of outdated and unsafe school buildings and are being educated remotely or in temporary classrooms.

Under Belgian law, criminal and civil judges can impose a prohibition on both individuals and corporate entities to prevent them from performing certain management functions in a company (management prohibition) upon conviction or in the context of insolvency, Linklaters reported. In practice, however, these management prohibitions often remain a dead letter, as persons who are prohibited from taking up a directorship are still appointed directors due to a lack of monitoring of compliance with these prohibitions.

Dutch bicycle maker VanMoof has been declared bankrupt, slamming the brakes on a company that won design awards for its stylish, minimalist electric bikes but struggled to meet soaring demand and fix glitches with the app powering its service, ABC News reported. The Amsterdam-based company, started in 2009 by brothers Taco and Ties Carlier, posted a statement on its website informing clients that an Amsterdam court declared VanMoof bankrupt on Monday. The company headquarters in Amsterdam was closed Tuesday.

Europeans are facing a new economic reality, one they haven’t experienced in decades: They are becoming poorer, the Wall Street Journal reported. Life on a continent long envied by outsiders for its art de vivre is rapidly losing its shine as Europeans see their purchasing power melt away. The French are eating less foie gras and drinking less red wine. Spaniards are stinting on olive oil. Finns are being urged to use saunas on windy days when energy is less expensive.

Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky neared victory on Monday in a battle to take over French retailer Casino after rival bidders pulled out of the race, paving the way for a deal to rescue the debt-laden group and save it from bankruptcy, KFGO reported. Kretinsky has been vying to take control of Casino against the 3F Holding group, led by telecom entrepreneur Xavier Niel, investment banker Matthieu Pigasse and businessman Moez-Alexandre Zouari.

A committee that reviews disputes in the credit default swaps (CDS) market said on Monday that UBS is the sole successor to Credit Suisse Group following the merger of the two banks, Reuters reported. This means that Credit Suisse will no longer be the reference entity for its outstanding CDS, which are a type of insurance against holding risky debt. Instead, UBS will become the new reference entity, with the effective date being June 12, when the merger was completed. An investor noted that the decision was widely expected and therefore should not have any major market impact.

FTX filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against former managers of a Swiss business the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange had acquired, looking to claw back at least $323 million to repay creditors and customers, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The lawsuit filed in the U.S.

The gleaming skyscrapers of London’s east skyline, built almost 40 years ago, are home to the headquarters of the world’s biggest banks and tens of thousands of their office workers. But when the workweek starts these days, the towers in Canary Wharf are quieter and the nearby restaurants are emptier — the result of a shift to remote work during the pandemic that sent office markets around the world plunging and vacancy rates rising, the New York Times reported. As firms adjust to hybrid work, many are downsizing their physical footprint.

The U.S. dollar being the dominant global reserve currency has been on a slow long-term downward trend, interrupted by upticks — and now we had an uptick, when the dollar gained share, Wolf Street reported. The share of the USD as global reserve currency rose to 59.0% in the first quarter of 2023, after having dropped to 58.6% in Q4, which had been the dollar’s lowest share since 1994, according to the IMF’s recent COFER data. The U.S.