Romania unexpectedly pressed ahead with a robust pace of monetary tightening, raising borrowing costs to the highest level in over a decade to combat persistent inflation, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank in Bucharest lifted its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points to 6.25% on Wednesday, following a similar decision at its last meeting in August. Only five out of 15 economists in a Bloomberg survey predicted the move, while most analysts saw a step of 50 basis points; one predicted a 25 basis-point hike.

Ukrainian Central Bank Governor Kyrylo Shevchenko abruptly submitted his resignation on Tuesday, citing health reasons in a Facebook post, Reuters reported. "Due to health-related issues that can no longer be ignored, I have made a difficult decision for myself. I am leaving the post of the head of Ukraine's National Bank," he said. Shevchenko, who assumed the post in July 2020 promising to maintain the bank's independence and cooperation with the International Monetary Fund, said he had submitted his letter of resignation to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and asked him to accept it.

The majority of funds made available as part of the European Union's pandemic recovery fund have not yet been disbursed, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday when asked about the possibility of further joint debt to address the energy crisis, Reuters reported. "These funds have overwhelmingly not been spent yet," Scholz said after a meeting with the Dutch prime minister in Berlin, adding that this support could be "particularly effective" now that a second crisis has followed the COVID-19 pandemic.

Germany is ready to discuss measures that could contain gas and power prices in the European Union, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. "We need to tackle this problem at its roots.

Asset managers including Blackrock Inc. and Schroders Plc are limiting institutional investors’ withdrawals from some UK property funds after a wave of requests to move money, Bloomberg News reported. Schroders’ UK Real Estate fund has deferred redemptions due at the start of October to as late as July 2023, which will give the £2.8 billion ($3.2 billion) fund more time to ensure it has enough cash to cover the payments, according to a statement on its website.

The European Central Bank will raise interest rates as much as needed to bring down core inflation although the pace could possibly slow after the end of the year, ECB policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Villeroy, who is also governor of the French central bank, said that 4.8% in euro zone core inflation, which excludes energy and food prices beyond the central bank's control, was too broad and too high. "We will raise interest rates as much as necessary to bring core inflation down," Villeroy told Dutch newspaper NRC.

The Dutch government expects to spend about 23.5 billion euros ($23.3 billion) on a price cap on energy contracts to shield consumers from surging prices, it said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The government last month said it would cap prices but had yet to agree final details. During the whole of 2023 prices will be capped at 0.40 euros per kilowatt hour of electricity and 1.45 euros per cubic metre of gas for a maximum of 2,900 kilowatt hours and 1,200 cubic metres respectively.

Poland’s foreign minister on Monday signed an official note to Germany requesting the payment of about $1.3 trillion in reparations for the damage incurred by occupying Nazi Germans during World War II, the Associated Press reported. Zbigniew Rau said the note will be handed to Germany’s Foreign Ministry. The signing comes on the eve of Rau’s meeting in Warsaw with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who will attend a security conference.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss was forced on Monday into a humiliating U-turn after less than a month in power, reversing a cut to the highest rate of income tax that helped spark turmoil in financial markets and a rebellion in her party, Reuters reported. Finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng said the decision was taken with "humility and contrition", after some lawmakers from the ruling Conservative Party reacted with fury to suggestions that public and welfare spending could be cut to fund tax cuts for the richest.

New restructuring commitments agreed by Italy and the European Union over state-owned bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) include disposals worth up to 400 million euros ($391 million), a document showed on Monday, Reuters reported. The text of the EU Commission's decision that extended an end-2021 deadline for Rome to sell its stake in the Tuscan bank also showed Italy had committed to keeping the management of its holdings in various state-owned banks separate.