U.K. debt costs are rising at the fastest pace since the aftermath of the global financial crisis, a potential headache for Chancellor Rishi Sunak as he faces pressure to spend more to help businesses weather the impact of the omicron variant, Bloomberg News reported. Figures published Tuesday showed interest payments made by the Treasury surged 54% between April and November, or by 15 billion pounds ($20 billion) to 42.9 billion pounds. That’s the biggest jump for the period since 2010.

One of the world’s largest aircraft leasing company filed for chapter 11 as it seeks to restructure its finances for the second time since the beginning of the pandemic. Denmark-based Nordic Aviation Capital A/S sought bankruptcy protection to overhaul about $6 billion of debt, Bloomberg News reported. On Sept. 24, the company reached an agreement in principle with creditors to fix its balance sheet. The company listed both assets and debt of between $1 billion and $10 billion, according to court papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Virginia.

KPMG will not refer any work to its former UK restructuring business Interpath Advisory in the latest fallout from the scandal over the sale of bed manufacturer Silentnight to a private equity firm, the Financial Times reported. The decision is part of KPMG’s attempts to repair its image after a series of fines and investigations. It has also sought to head off the threat of a ban on bidding for UK government consulting work by temporarily withdrawing from pitching for new public contracts, the Financial Times revealed on Friday.

The Netherlands will go into a strict lockdown over the Christmas and New Year period to try to contain the highly- contagious Omicron coronavirus variant, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Saturday, Reuters reported. All non-essential shops and services, including restaurants, hairdressers, museums and gyms will be closed from Sunday until Jan. 14. All schools will be shut until at least Jan. 9. "The Netherlands is again shutting down. That is unavoidable because of the fifth wave that is coming at us with the Omicron variant," Rutte told a televised news conference.

Company insolvencies in England and Wales rose last month to their highest level since January 2019, surpassing pre-COVID levels for the first time, government data showed on Friday, Reuters reported. The Insolvency Service, a government agency, registered 1,674 business insolvencies in November, up from 1,410 in October. This comprises mostly voluntary liquidations of businesses, but also companies falling into administration and compulsory liquidations.

Europe is bracing for energy shortages this week as freezing weather is set to boost demand at a time supply just can’t keep up, Bloomberg News reported. Temperatures are forecast to fall below zero degrees Celsius in several European capitals this week, straining electricity grids already coping with low wind speeds and severe nuclear outages in France. To make matters worse, Russia signaled it intends to keep natural gas flows through a major transit route to Germany limited on Monday after capping supplies over the weekend.

French growth and inflation will moderate in 2022 after a faster than expected recovery this year, after which a tighter labour market will boost wages, the French central bank forecast on Sunday, Reuters reported. The euro zone's second-biggest economy is set to grow 6.7% this year, the Bank of France said in its latest long term outlook, raising its forecast up from 6.3% previously. The post-pandemic economy's momentum would wane next year, with growth slowing to 3.6% and easing back further to 2.2% in 2023 and 1.4% in 2024, the central bank said.

Britain's health minister on Sunday declined to rule out the chance of further COVID-19 restrictions before Christmas, saying the spread of the Omicron variant was a very fast moving situation, Reuters reported. Britain has reported a surge in Omicron cases, which government advisers said could be just the tip of the iceberg. On Saturday, London's mayor declared a "major incident" to help the city's hospitals cope.

The European Central Bank announced on Thursday that it would end its pandemic-era bond-buying program in March, but would try to ease the transition by pledging additional support for the eurozone economy in the coming year, the New York Times reported. The bank left its interest rate untouched, and Christine Lagarde, the bank’s president, said that it was “very unlikely” it would move higher in the coming year despite rising inflation, which the bank sees as largely driven by high energy prices. Two other major central banks have taken a different approach.

Germany’s federal government plans to sell the second-highest amount of debt on record next year, as aggressive spending to offset the impact of the coronavirus pandemic continues, Bloomberg News reported. Debt issuance will shrink to about 410 billion euros ($464 billion) in 2022, compared with a record of around 480 billion euros this year, according to the German finance agency’s issuance plan published Thursday. The borrowing includes inflation-linked bonds worth as much as 8 billion euros, and Green bonds of 12.5 billion euros, a similar volume to this year, the agency said by email.