Britain's accounting watchdog said on Thursday it had fined Deloitte LLP more than 900,000 pounds ($1.09 million) over its audits of building materials supplier SIG plc (SHI.L) for the 2015 and 2016 financial years, Reuters reported. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said it had imposed a penalty of 1.25 million pounds on Deloitte LLP, reduced to 906,250 pounds after it admitted breaches over its work on SIG's financial statements. The FRC reprimanded Deloitte, ordering it to take action to prevent the breaches from happening again.

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Portugal provided São Tomé and Príncipe with €15 million in direct support towards the country’s budget in order to “meet immediate needs,” announced minister of foreign affairs João Gomes Cravinho last Friday, the Portugal Resident reported. The funding was done through the Camões cooperation and language institute. “This amount of €15 million is to meet immediate cash-flow needs.

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On December 21, the Commercial Court of the Zaporizhzhia Region started proceedings on the bankruptcy of the metallurgical plant Azovstal (Mariupol, Donetsk Region), Ukrainian News reported. The court decided to open proceedings on the bankruptcy of the combine at the request of the Zaporizhvohnetryv plant (Zaporizhzhia), which is also part of the Metinvest group.

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The European Commission said on Tuesday it had approved Germany's 34.5 billion euro ($36.60 billion) plan to recapitalise German natural gas trader Uniper, subject to future state divestment, management pay and acquisitions, Reuters reported. The plan complies with EU state aid rules on the necessity, appropriateness and size of the intervention, the Commission said in a statement.
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Europe’s economy looks set to avoid the severe shock that the region feared amid the energy crisis resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the region’s medium-term problems look harder to fix, and leave Europe facing a struggle to retain its industrial core, the Wall Street Journal reported. Russia’s war on Ukraine and its economic fallout has shaken Europe’s export-oriented business model. Skyrocketing energy prices threaten industries at the heart of the continent’s manufacturing system, such as chemicals and metal production.
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Brexit has left the UK economy is 5.5% smaller than it would have been and added to the squeeze on public services that’s behind strikes cripling the railways and National Health Service, a prominent research group concluded, Bloomberg News reported. The Center for Economic Reform said that slower growth is also weighing on the Treasury’s revenue and that the tax increases announced in the autumn fiscal statement wouldn’t be necessary if the UK were still in the European Union’s common market.
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President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia could achieve the goals of what he calls Moscow's "special military operation" in Ukraine without damaging the economy by militarising it, Reuters reported. Speaking at an end-of-year conference of Russia's top military brass, Putin said Russia would improve its military forces steadily and calmly without undermining the quality of social services for the Russian people. Read more.
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The World Bank on Tuesday said it had approved an additional financing package totaling $610 million to address urgent relief and recovery needs in Ukraine as the war with Russia continues, Reuters reported. The package includes an additional $500 million loan from the World Bank's International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) that is supported by a guarantee from Britain, and a new project to restore and improve access to health care and address war-related needs for health services, the global lender said.
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Europe’s move to cap natural gas prices threatens to curb supply to the region and intensify its energy crisis, Bloomberg News reported. European nations this week reached a deal to put a ceiling on gas prices, ending months of political wrangling over whether to intervene in its energy sector. But while the mechanism may help prevent extreme price swings, it may leave the region vulnerable to insufficient supplies and stronger competition from Asia.
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Thurrock council has become the latest local authority to formally declare effective bankruptcy, as it grapples with a £500m deficit caused by a series of disastrous investments in risky commercial projects, the Guardian reported. The Conservative-run council in Essex admitted three weeks ago that it faces big cuts and job losses after revealing it had lost £275m on investments it made in solar energy and other businesses, and has set aside a further £130m this year to pay back investment debts.
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