Germany is coming around to backing the idea of joint EU debt issuance to help cushion the blow of the energy crisis, as long as the freshly raised money is disbursed to struggling member states as loans, not grants, Bloomberg News reported. The change in the position follows criticism from other leaders that Germany’s €200 billion national aid plan could trigger economic imbalances in the bloc. The EU’s pandemic-era SURE program — which offers employment support of as much as €100 billion in the form of loans — could provide a blueprint for a new debt-backed instrument, we’ve been told.

Economic activity in Russia slowed significantly at the end of September, Bank of Russia Deputy Governor Alexei Zabotkin told lawmakers on Tuesday, but payments to mobilised troops should cushion the negative effect on consumer demand, Reuters reported. President Vladimir Putin announced on Sept. 21 that 300,000 people would be mobilised to boost Russia's efforts in what it calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine, but details of the economic impact have so far been thin on the ground.

A crisis in U.K. government debt markets accelerated after a fresh attempt by the Bank of England to extend support to pension funds failed to assuage worried investors, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The U.K.’s central bank said Monday that it would increase the daily amounts it was willing to buy in long-dated bonds before ending the program it established last month as scheduled on Friday. It also unveiled two types of lending facilities aimed at freeing up cash for pension funds beyond the end of the bond buying. The moves appeared to backfire, with yields on 30-year U.K.

Germany has hired a number of investment banks for a new syndicated 30-year bond sale on Monday, according to memos from two lead managers seen by Reuters. The bond, due 15 August 2053, will carry a coupon of 1.8% and "will be launched and priced in the near future, subject to market conditions," the memos said, a phrase debt management offices usually use a day before a sale. Germany hired Barclays, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan for the sale, the memos said. Read more.

The German Cabinet on Wednesday approved plans to loosen insolvency rules until the end of next year in the face of exploding energy and raw material prices, Reuters reported. The planned easing of the law, which must be put to parliament, applies to the obligation to file for insolvency in the case of over-indebtedness. Companies are to be exempt from this if they can prove that their business is financed for the next four months rather than the current 12-month requirement.

British businesses' expectations for consumer price inflation in one year's time rose to 9.5% last month, up from 8.4% in August, a Bank of England survey showed on Thursday, Reuters reported. The BoE's Decision Maker Panel survey of chief financial officers also showed that businesses expected output prices to rise by 6.6% in the year ahead, up from expectations of 6.5% in August. The survey was conducted between Sept. 2 and 16 and received 2,522 responses. Read more.

The Swiss National Bank is following the situation at Credit Suisse closely, SNB Governing Board member Andrea Maechler told Reuters on Wednesday. Switzerland's second-biggest bank saw its shares slide by as much as 11.5% and its bonds hit record lows on Monday, before clawing back some of the losses, amid concerns about its ability to restructure its business without asking investors for more money. "We are monitoring the situation," Maechler said on the sidelines of an event in Zurich.

The derivatives-based investment strategy that tipped the U.K.’s pension sector into crisis started with good intentions: Help companies fulfill promises they made to employees to pay a steady income through retirement, the Wall Street Journal reported. Behind the push into that strategy, say pension trustees and their advisers, was the Pensions Regulator, the U.K.’s powerful watchdog, charged with safeguarding the savings of millions of private-sector workers. The regulator steered private pension funds to adopt liability-driven investments, known as LDIs, linked to returns on U.K.

The National Bank of Poland (NBP) kept its main interest rate on hold at 6.75% on Wednesday, it said, opting to leave borrowing costs unchanged despite soaring inflation as it warned of an economic slowdown in the coming months, Reuters reported. With regional peers finishing monetary tightening cycles, Polish policymakers had also signaled that the end of rate hikes was near. However, with inflation rising to 17.2% in September, the highest since 1997, most economists had predicted that the cost of credit would continue to rise.

Hungary's central bank accepted 2.093 trillion forints ($4.90 billion) worth of bids from banks at its first floating-rate two-month deposit tender on Wednesday as part of its efforts to drain forint liquidity and tighten monetary conditions further, Reuters reported. The National Bank of Hungary (NBH), which ended its cycle of rate hikes last month taking the base rate to 13%, has said it would deploy an array of tools to tighten liquidity conditions from this month, including the new deposit instrument.