The European Central Bank delivered the smallest interest-rate increase yet in its battle with persistently strong inflation but insisted that the move won’t be the last, Bloomberg News reported. Officials raised the deposit rate by a quarter-point to 3.25%, following three steps of double that size. The announcement matches the expectations of traders and most economists, leaving the rate at its highest level since 2008. The Governing Council said future decisions will remain data-dependent as they bring rates to levels sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to the 2% target.

European savers are pulling more of their money from banks, looking for a better deal as lenders resist paying up to hold on to deposits some feel they can currently live without, Reuters reported. The trend emerged as some of the region's biggest lenders outlined a profitable start to the year in results that also offered a glimpse of a phenomenon dubbed a "bank walk" - a slow but notable outflow of customer cash.

U.S. asset manager Apollo Global Management Inc. plans to apply for approval from Swedish and Danish regulators to take a majority stake in SAS AB as part of the Scandinavian airline's rescue plan, Reuters reported. The news of interest from the U.S. asset manager sent the embattled carrier's shares up as much as 14% in Wednesday morning trading. At 1011 GMT, they were up 5.9%. SAS has lost almost 60% of its value since it filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last July, seeking to slash costs and debt after wage talks with pilots collapsed. A deal with the U.S.

UBS was considering the potential impact of buying struggling rival Credit Suisse as early as December, months before the takeover was hastily arranged by Swiss authorities in March, according to a regulatory filing, Reuters reported. The filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also showed UBS concluded in February that buying Credit Suisse was not desirable, but that it should prepare in case its rival encountered "serious financial difficulties".

Russia's economy contracted by 2.2% in the first quarter of 2023 in annual terms, the economy ministry estimated on Wednesday, down from growth of 3% in the same period last year, Reuters reported. The ministry estimated that gross domestic product (GDP) fell 1.1% year-on-year in March, an improvement on a revised 2.9% drop in February. Russia's GDP is expected to rebound marginally this year from a 2.1% annual decline in 2022, the result of Western sanctions against Moscow after it despatched troops to Ukraine in February 2022.

The Czech central bank warned it may have to raise borrowing costs if home-grown inflation risks escalate, calling investors’ bets on monetary easing “premature.” The koruna gained, Bloomberg News reported. Policy makers kept the benchmark rate at 7% on Wednesday, but the vote was tighter than before, with three out of seven board members seeking a quarter-point increase. Governor Ales Michl said the current policy setting is already taming domestic demand, pointing to slowing credit growth and a cooling property market.

Underlying inflation in the euro area eased for the first time in 10 months, backing the case for the European Central Bank to slow the most aggressive interest-rate hiking campaign in its history later this week, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices stripping out volatile items like fuel and food costs rose 5.6% from a year ago in April — down from March’s record 5.7% advance and in line with the median estimate in a Bloomberg poll of economists. The headline inflation rate, meanwhile, ticked up to 7% — a touch more than the 6.9% analysts anticipated and still far above the 2% target.

Hundreds more Credit Suisse Group AG bondholders sued Switzerland’s banking regulator after their securities valued at about $1.7 billion were wiped out during the lender’s government-brokered takeover by UBS Group AG, Bloomberg News reported.

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner on Tuesday rejected a plan by Economy Minister Robert Habeck to introduce an industrial electricity price, Reuters reported. Such a move would be "economically unwise" and it would contradict market principles to rely on direct state aid as a means to achieve industrial transformation, he wrote in a guest article published by business daily Handelsblatt. The ministry had planned to introduce a concept for industrial electricity pricing this week as part of government efforts to support transition away from fossil fuels.

Inflation expectations in Britain eased in April, bank Citi said on Monday, offering some relief to the Bank of England which is expected to announce a 12th straight interest rate hike next week with investors betting on further increases after that, Reuters reported. Citi said its monthly survey conducted by market research company YouGov showed public expectations for inflation in 12 months' time eased to 5.2% in April from 5.4% in March and expectations for five to 10 years ahead fell to 3.6% from 3.7%.