U.K. mortgage approvals fell for a second month in July but remained well above pre-pandemic levels, suggesting demand for property is holding up despite the tapering of a tax break on purchases, Bloomberg News reported. Banks and building societies authorized 75,152 home loans, the least in a year and down from 80,272 in June, the Bank of England said Tuesday.

The Norwegian government has proposed overhauling the taxation system for the petroleum industry, which has been in place since 2005, cutting reimbursements for exploration costs, Finance Minister Jan Tore Sanner said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. "The changes mean that the tax conditions will be tighter and have a more neutral effect on investments. At the same time, we are making sure that companies have predictable framework conditions," Sanner told a news conference.

Austria’s government is stepping up its efforts to urge fellow European Union nations to quicken a return to cautious budget policies, as the latest wave of the pandemic will require less stimulus, Bloomberg News reported. Finance Minister Gernot Bluemel said further measures to support economies were unlikely despite an increase in infections, as higher vaccination rates allowed governments to avoid lockdown measures. Instead, EU member states should look ahead and start rebuilding state financial coffers to prepare for future crises.

The European Union recommended Monday that its 27 nations reinstate restrictions on tourists from the U.S. because of rising coronavirus infections there, the Associated Press reported. The decision by the European Council to remove the U.S. from a safe list of countries for nonessential travel reverses advice that it gave in June, when the bloc recommended lifting restrictions on U.S. travelers before the summer tourism season. The guidance is nonbinding, however, and U.S. travelers should expect a mishmash of travel rules across the continent.

European Central Bank Governing Council member Francois Villeroy de Galhau said policy makers should take into account more favorable financing conditions in the region when they decide on the pace of emergency bond-buying next week, hinting a slowdown may be in the cards, Bloomberg News reported. Any changes in the program dubbed PEPP would not amount to tapering like that announced by U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday, according to Villeroy, who is also the governor of the Bank of France.

A labor union representing German train drivers said Monday that its members will launch a third strike this week in an escalating pay dispute with the country’s biggest rail company, the Associated Press reported. The GDL union said freight train drivers will walk out on Wednesday evening, followed by passenger train drivers early Thursday. The strike is due to last until 2 a.m. on Sept. 7, making it the longest in the current round of labor negotiations.

Fugitive Indian businessman Vijay Mallya has filed papers in the UK high court seeking permission to appeal against his bankruptcy order, the Times of India reported. Mallya was declared bankrupt by the insolvency and companies court (ICC) of the high court on July 26 this year. His name is now listed in the individual insolvency register. A spokesman for the chancery division of the high court told TOI that Mallya had on August 16 filed a notice seeking permission to appeal the decision of Chief ICC judge Briggs, who had declared him bankrupt.

Almost a quarter of firms that received funding from Microfinance Ireland (MFI) over the past decade have ceased trading, according to a spending review carried out by the Department of Public Expenditure, the Irish Times reported. MFI was established to deliver the Government’s Microenterprise Loan Fund. It works closely with Local Enterprise Offices to provide loans to small businesses. The Department of Public Expenditure published a series of spending reviews on Thursday, which included an analysis of the impact of Covid-19 on State supported lending.

If there isn't an immediate intervention, "the Metropolitan Government will become insolvent by the end of the year,” Budapest Deputy Mayor Ambrus Kiss said in a recent interview, HungaryToday.hu reported. The politician blames ever-increasing expenditures and the central government for the situation. In order to avoid insolvency, this year’s budget had to be modified in 65 points, Kiss revealed.

Supply constraints are pushing prices up more than the European Central Bank expected, even as the impact will likely be temporary, Governing Council member Francois Villeroy de Galhau said, Bloomberg News reported. “There are supply difficulties that will push inflation higher than we thought in the short term,” Villeroy told executives at the annual conference of business federation Medef.