The French economy is set to contract slightly this quarter due to refinery strikes and nuclear reactor outages before activity recovers in the first half of next year, the INSEE official stats agency said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The euro zone's second biggest economy will contract 0.2% in the final three months from the previous quarter, INSEE said in its latest economic outlook. INSEE trimmed its forecast from a previous projection for flat growth after refinery strikes and maintenance outages at some nuclear reactors reduced industrial output.

German tennis star Boris Becker has returned to Germany after serving eight months in prison in Britain, his lawyer said on Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The 55-year-old German, who has lived in Britain since 2012, was released on Thursday morning and travelled back to Germany shortly thereafter. Becker "has thus served his sentence and is not subject to any penal restrictions in Germany," his lawyer, Christian-Oliver Moser, said in a statement. He did not give additional details about Becker's location in Germany.

England and Wales saw a 21% annual rise in the number of company insolvencies last month and the second-highest monthly total in figures going back to 2019, published a day after the Bank of England said businesses were coming under increased pressure, Reuters reported. Some 2,029 registered companies in England and Wales were declared insolvent in November, second only to the number in March, when pandemic-related protections against court orders ended.

A shortage of some medicines may eventually arise due to the bankruptcy of the pharmaceutical manufacturer InnoGenerics in Leiden, Netherlands Minister Ernst Kuipers of Public Health informed parliament, the NL Times reported. The court in The Hague declared the generic medicine maker bankrupt on Tuesday. There was no takeover candidate, and the Cabinet decided against investing money in the company due to all kinds of uncertainties. The company had been struggling for some time.

Germany's top regulator this week called for global regulation of the cryptocurrency industry to protect consumers, prevent money laundering and preserve financial stability, Reuters reported. Mark Branson, the president of Germany's financial market regulator BaFin, said a hands-off approach that would "just let the industry grow as a playground for grownups" was the wrong tactic. "We've seen the self-regulated world. It will not work," Branson told journalists in Frankfurt on Tuesday evening. Branson was speaking hours after U.S.

The European Central Bank expects inflation to remain above its 2% target for the next three years, one source told Reuters, more than markets currently expect and signalling its fight against runaway prices is far from over, Reuters reported. The ECB is certain to raise interest rates for a fourth consecutive time on Thursday to rein in inflation, and will also announce new quarterly economic projections, used by investors to work out how many more hikes may be on the cards.

Britain’s inflation rate eased away from a 41-year high on Wednesday, but the slowdown brings only limited relief to a nation gripped by a deep cost-of-living crisis, the New York Times reported. Consumer prices in Britain rose 10.7 percent in November from a year earlier, bringing the rate of inflation down slightly from 11.1 percent in October, which was the highest annual rate since 1981, the Office for National Statistics said.

Ukraine's economy could shrink by 50% this year if Russia keeps attacking the national power grid and other critical infrastructure, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal was quoted as saying on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Russia has launched a series of missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities since October, causing power outages across the country. "The contraction of the Ukrainian economy is projected at the level of 35-40%," Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted Shmyhal as saying.

Germany is highly dependent on imports for many crucial raw materials and often relies entirely on other countries to meet demand, according to a study seen by Reuters, which warned that much of this reliance was on authoritarian regimes. The DIW research institute identified 30 raw materials as particularly critical and placed Germany's dependence on imports at 100% for 14 of them. For another three, dependency was ranked at over 95%, the DIW said. It classed commodities as critical if they were considered essential but also subject to increased supply risk.

The Bank of England warned on Tuesday about "significant pressure" on households and businesses due to higher inflation and borrowing costs, but said they were more resilient than before the global financial crisis, Reuters reported. The BoE has previously flagged that Britain was entering a lengthy recession, and with inflation at a 41-year high and a sharp rise in interest rates over the past year, government forecasters have predicted a record squeeze on living standards.