The Swiss National Bank raised its policy interest rate by 25 basis points on Thursday as the central bank pressed ahead with its campaign to dampen stubborn inflation and signalled that more tightening was likely to come, Reuters reported. Chairman Thomas Jordan pointed to rising inflationary pressures and the danger of price increases becoming entrenched as the SNB hiked Swiss rates for the fifth time in succession. Although Swiss inflation ebbed to 2.2% in May from 2.6% in April, there was still more work to be done to tackle rising prices, Jordan told reporters.

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) on Thursday said it was crucial to draw lessons from the Credit Suisse crisis that led to the bank's downfall and forced rescue by rival UBS and consider measures that would prevent such events in the future, Reuters reported. "These measures need to strengthen banks’ resilience in order to prevent a loss of confidence wherever possible, and ensure a broad range of effective options to stabilise, recover or wind down a systemically important bank in the event of a crisis," the central bank said in its 2023 financial stability report.

Norway’s central bank accelerated interest-rate increases and pledged more aggressive tightening, intensifying its response to stubborn inflation and a weak currency, Bloomberg News reported. Norges Bank lifted its key deposit rate on Thursday by 50 basis points to 3.75%, prompting the krone to post its biggest advance in two weeks. The decision outcome was anticipated by a large minority of economists, with the rest predicting a smaller move. This is the 11th hike in the Norwegian benchmark since September 2021.

German automotive supplier Allgaier, whose customers include Porsche, has filed for insolvency, a court said on Wednesday, a year after being sold to a Chinese investor, Reuters reported. The Goeppingen district court said that it had appointed Pluta law firm's Fritz Zanker as provisional insolvency administrator. Allgaier, which has about 1,700 employees, supplies major car manufacturers with sheet metal parts and is also active in toolmaking and process engineering.

The High Court has appointed an interim examiner to the company that operates the Iceland chain of retail stores in Ireland, the Irish Examiner reported. The court heard Metron Stores Limited, which is in difficulties due to factors including a recent order served on it by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland requiring it to withdraw all imported frozen food of animal origin from its stores, is insolvent and unable to pay estimated debts of €36m as they fall due.

Britain’s inflation rate held steady in May, frustrating expectations that price increases would slow down, according to data released Wednesday, the day before the country’s central bank is widely expected to raise interest rates again, the New York Times reported. Consumer prices rose 8.7 percent from a year earlier, the same as in April, the Office for National Statistics said. Economists had forecast it would dip slightly.

The French economy is on course to avoid a recession this year while inflation pressures ease though growth and will only gradually pick up in the coming two years, the central bank forecast on Wednesday, Reuters reported. In its quarterly outlook, the Bank of France said the euro zone's second-biggest economy would grow 0.1% in the current quarter from the previous three months and 0.2% in both the third and fourth quarters.

Hungary is likely to lower its key interest rate for the second straight month after central bankers signaled a retreat from a tightening cycle that brought borrowing costs to a European Union high, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank in Budapest will reduce the overnight deposit rate by a full percentage point to 16% on Tuesday, according to all eight economists surveyed in a Bloomberg poll. The decision, along with fresh inflation projections, will be communicated in a statement and a press conference at 3 p.m. local time.

Investigations into bankruptcy cases netted more than €6 million of so-called hidden assets last year, the Irish Times reported. Official assignees in cases run by the Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) carried out 185 investigations around bankruptcies, according to the ISI’s 2022 annual report. During bankruptcy proceedings a person’s assets are transferred to the official assignee. The official assignee then sells those assets to cover the bankrupt’s debts.