Norwegian banks are well-equipped if faced with a new downturn and the economic recovery has improved the outlook for financial stability, but risks remain, the central bank said in an annual report on Tuesday, Reuters reported. "The stress test in this report shows that the largest Norwegian banks can weather a sharp downturn without having to tighten lending substantially," Deputy Governor Ida Wolden Bache said in a statement.

U.K. food prices are rising at their fastest pace since August 2020, figures from data firm Kantar suggest, as supply chain disruption continues, BBC.com reported. Grocery inflation rose to 2.1% in October - the highest rate since last year, when retailers were cutting promotions amid the Covid pandemic. Last week, the Bank of England confounded market expectations by holding interest rates. But with overall inflation heading for about 5%, a rate rise is expected soon. Supply chains have been under pressure from factors including the pandemic and a shortage of lorry drivers.

European Union finance ministers agreed on Monday that the current surge in consumer prices would subside next year and that high public debt created by the pandemic had to be reduced, but in a way that would not hurt economic growth, Reuters reported. Inflation rose 4.1% year-on-year last month in the 19 countries sharing the euro, up from 3.4% in September and the ministers are starting to worry that the rise might fuel stronger wage growth, creating an inflationary spiral.

Germany’s export-oriented economy used to be a reliable engine for pulling Europe out of slumps. Now, as the continent emerges from a pandemic torpor, Germany is lagging behind, the Wall Street Journal reported. German manufacturers are struggling to produce cars and factory equipment because of parts and labor shortages. They face surging energy prices that are making sky-high electricity bills even higher. And they must invest hundreds of billions of dollars over coming years to meet new clean-energy standards.

French economic activity reached a level in August not seen since before the Covid-19 pandemic and has continued rising since, aided by a strong recovery in the service sector, according to a Bank of France’s survey of businesses, Bloomberg News reported. Economic output was about 0.5% above early 2020 levels in October and will rise again in November, putting the euro area’s second-largest economy on track for roughly 0.75% growth in the final quarter of the year, the estimates show.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Monday that the rise of crypto assets was helping illegal activity, Reuters reported. "I'm afraid that the advent of digital means of payment, and in particular crypto assets, I'm afraid that the evidence suggests, and we see this, is that it is providing another means of payment for people who want to conduct criminal activity," Bailey said during an online question-and-answer session organised by the BoE. Read more.

Russia succeeded in overturning part of a judgment for a record $50 billion to former shareholders of Yukos Oil Co., meaning the 16-year legal saga that raged between the Kremlin and the owners of what was once Russia’s biggest oil company is set to continue, Bloomberg News reported. The ruling by the Netherlands’ highest court Friday overturned a prior opinion into the bankruptcy of Yukos. The Dutch Supreme Court said in a judgment that a lower court should review one ground of the case again.

Housing costs may be adding more to euro zone inflation than once thought, European Central Bank policymaker Robert Holzmann said on Friday, weighing in on a key issue that has been a focus of policymakers this year, Reuters reported. When asked how much owner-occupied housing costs could increase headline inflation, Holzmann, Austria's central bank chief, said it could raise it by as much as a 0.5 percentage point. "I have heard 0.5 (percentage point), he told reporters.

Euro zone retail sales recorded an unexpected drop in September as Germany, the bloc's biggest economy, underperformed and non-food sales were also weak, data from Eurostat showed on Friday. Retail sales, a proxy for consumer demand, in the 19 countries sharing the euro, fell 0.3% month-on-month in September and were up 2.5% from a year earlier, the European Union's statistics office said.

The Biden administration’s deal to ease off steel and aluminum tariffs from Europe has won plaudits from much of U.S. industry, but a complex new quota system that comes with it has fueled concerns for small importers, the Wall Street Journal reported. The deal, announced during the Group of 20 summit last weekend, allows the European Union to export steel and aluminum duty free until reaching a quota of 3.3 million metric tons of steel and 384,000 metric tons of aluminum a year.