Europe

Like wine-growing heartlands everywhere from Bordeaux to Napa Valley, Lombardy’s Oltrepò Pavese region is grappling with two historic challenges: a changing climate and changing tastes. It’s been incredibly rainy in northern Italy this year. Fungi took hold of some vines, and had to be dealt with hastily, Bloomberg News reported. At the same time, great viniculture nations like Italy are having to adapt to the waning popularity of red wine, as younger drinkers opt for trendy craft beers and fizzy whites — or swear off alcohol entirely.

Troubled Swedish battery maker Northvolt AB has laid off nearly 400 white-collar workers at its center of operations in Skelleftea as part of concluded negotiations with two of the Swedish trade unions, Bloomberg News reported. The redundancies form part of a previously announced measure to cut 1,000 jobs at the Northvolt Ett plant in northern Sweden. The maker of electric vehicle batteries is racing to preserve cash while it negotiates a new financing pact with investors.

Argentina lost a bid at the U.K. Supreme Court to hear its appeal on a ruling that would force the South American nation to pay $1.5 billion in damages to holders of the country’s growth-linked bonds, Bloomberg News reported. In an order signed Monday, the U.K.’s top court refused to hear an appeal over payments to hedge funds including Palladian Partners LP. The holders of those notes argued the losses were a result of a change by a previous Argentine government in how it calculated gross domestic product.

Inflation in the U.K. fell to below the Bank of England’s 2% target in September for the first time in more than three years, boosting the chance of an interest-rate cut next month, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were 1.7% higher in September than the same month of last year, easing from the 2.2% rate of inflation in August, and reaching the lowest level since April 2021, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. The pound fell 0.5% against the dollar after the data release.

Italy’s far-right government has approved a budget for next year of about 30 billion euros ($33 billion), which officials say will be partly funded by a levy on Italian banks and insurers, the Associated Press reported. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said late Tuesday that the government expected to raise some 3.5 billion euros from banks and insurance companies to ensure better public services, especially the country's struggling health service, and help the most vulnerable citizens.

A local authority will run out of money before the end of the year without government help, its finance chief has said. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council will have to make cuts and savings of more than 10% of its budget to avoid bankruptcy, a BBC investigation has found. Although funding for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is not included in the day-to-day budget, it is the council's biggest financial concern. Deputy leader Mike Cox told the BBC that without help the authority would "run out of cash".

Intrum AB is in talks with holdout creditors to persuade them to sign up to its restructuring proposal, Bloomberg News reported. The Swedish debt collector and its advisers are looking to find a compromise on its debt plan with holders of the majority of its 2025 bonds. Intrum has been trying to win over investors to stabilize an unsustainable debt structure that is facing looming maturities. It already has the support of more than 72% of bondholders who signed up to a binding agreement, exceeding the two-thirds threshold required for a chapter 11 process in the U.S.

Northvolt is in talks with investors and lenders to secure about 200 million euros ($218 million) in short-term funding, as the Swedish maker of batteries for electric vehicles seeks to stabilise its finances, Reuters reported. The talks have been taking place this week, one of the sources said, adding that the company still aims to raise a larger amount of capital for the long-term. On Friday, Northvolt repeated a statement from Sept. 24 that said it had made significant progress in recent weeks in its effort to raise cash.