Annual inflation in Russia accelerated to 12.54% as of March 11, its highest since late 2015 and up from 10.42% a week earlier, the economy ministry said on Wednesday, with the weakening rouble sending prices soaring amid unprecedented Western sanctions, Reuters reported. Inflation accelerated sharply as the currency fell to an all-time low and amid signs of increased demand for a wide range of goods, from food staples to cars, on expectations that their prices will rise further.

BMW and Volkswagen warned this week that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is causing shortages of some vital components, forcing them to reduce vehicle production in Europe, the Associated Press reported. The two German carmakers said the war is having a “negative” effect on auto supply chains, which have already been battered by shortages of semiconductors. BMW said Wednesday that bottlenecks at its suppliers in Ukraine have forced the automaker to adjust or interrupt production at a number of factories, which is likely to have a negative impact on vehicle sales figures.

Russia is due to pay $117 million in interest on two dollar-denominated sovereign bonds on Wednesday — the first such payments since its invasion of Ukraine which sparked a raft of sanctions from Western capitals and countermeasures from Moscow, according to a Reuters analysis. Russia's finance ministry said on Monday it had sent an order to a correspondent bank for the payment of coupons on eurobonds amounting to $117.2 million, which are due on Wednesday.

Credit ratings agency Fitch said on Tuesday that if Russia were to make two U.S. dollar bond coupon payments due Wednesday in roubles, it would constitute a sovereign default after a grace period expiration, Reuters reported. Russia's invasion of Ukraine last month triggered sanctions from across the world that have limited Moscow's ability to access and allocate cash. "The payment in local currency of Russia's U.S. dollar Eurobond coupons due on 16 March would, if it were to occur, constitute a sovereign default, on expiry of the 30-day grace period," Fitch said in a statement.

While debt has been a problem for millennia, contemporary international institutions have focused on alternative dispute resolutions for commercial disputes for only decades, according to an analysis in mediate.com. according to an analysis in mediate.com. In the late ’90s many developing countries experienced financial distress. In 1999, the World Bank began to analyze the problem and in 2001developed the “Insolvency and Creditor Rights Standards” (ICR Standards). The focus was on judicial proceedings. The possibility of resorting to mediation was regarded as entirely residual.

Delta Air Lines Inc. said it’s working with Air France-KLM as the Paris-based airline considers joining in the bidding for a stake in Italy’s state-owned carrier, Bloomberg reported. Italia Tranporto Aereo would be a welcome recruit to the North Atlantic alliance led by Delta, according to Ed Bastian, the U.S. carrier’s chief executive officer. “Air France-KLM is in the lead in terms of actually making a potential investment,” Bastian said in a briefing in London on Tuesday.

The invasion of Ukraine has placed Russia on the verge of bankruptcy, the Economic Times of India reported. Interest rates have doubled, the stock market has closed, and the rouble has fallen to its lowest level ever. The military costs of war have been exacerbated by an unprecedented level of international sanctions, sustained by a large coalition of countries. Russian citizens, now unable to spend at IKEA, McDonald's or Starbucks, are not allowed to convert any of the money they do have into foreign currency.

Russia's finance minister has confessed that nearly half of the country's foreign exchange reserves, which are viewed as a critical instrument for resisting Western economic sanctions, are insufficient, Wio News reported. According to a report by Interfax, the independent Russian news agency, Anton Siluanov said in an interview with Russian state television on Sunday that Russia had about $640 billion in foreign reserves, with about $300 billion of that amount frozen due to sanctions imposed by the U.S., Europe and other Western nations.

The Munich prosecutors’ office filed a series of charges against former Wirecard AG Chief Executive Officer Markus Braun, Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper reported. Braun was accused of fraud, misappropriation of corporate assets, accounting fraud and market manipulation. Charges were also filed against Oliver Bellenhaus, previously a managing director of a Dubai-based Wirecard unit, and Stephan von Erffa, the former chief accountant and deputy chief financial officer.

Italian paper mills, which make everything from pizza boxes to furniture packaging, ground to a halt as Russia’s war in Ukraine has sent natural gas prices skyrocketing, the Associated Press reported. And it’s not just paper. Italian steel mills likewise turned off electric furnaces last week, and fishermen, facing a huge spikes in oil prices, stayed in port, mending nets instead of casting them. Nowhere more than in Italy, the European Union’s third-largest economy, is dependence on Russian energy taking a higher toll on industry.