The U.K.’s audit regulator imposed record sanctions against audit firms during its latest fiscal year, highlighting the seriousness of recent failures in the industry, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Financial Reporting Council on Thursday said financial sanctions during the year ended March 31 totaled £46.5 million before settlement discounts, equivalent to $56.6 million and up from £16.7 million the year before. The FRC also said it resolved more cases than in previous years. Higher sanctions and more concluded cases come as the U.K.

Germany’s annual inflation rate has declined slightly for the second consecutive month, official data showed Thursday, but July’s pace of 7.5% was still within sight of the nearly half-century high it reached in May, the Associated Press reported. Inflation in Europe’s biggest economy rose 7.9% in May from a year earlier, the highest level since the early 1970s, before slipping to 7.6% last month. The preliminary monthly figure for July, reported Thursday by the Federal Statistical Office, is usually confirmed in a final report about two weeks later.

Consumer prices driven by the soaring cost of energy continued to take a toll on Europe, causing growth in the continent’s traditional engine, Germany, to stall even as other large economies grew faster than expected, data released on Friday showed, the New York Times reported. In the 19 countries that use the common European currency, consumer prices in July jumped 8.9 percent from a year earlier, as inflation reached a fresh record, the third straight month of gains.

Hartley Pensions Limited, which provides retirement products to UK consumers, is preparing to file for insolvency, Bloomberg News reported. The firm has approached insolvency practitioners in recent weeks to assess options including administration, the people said, asking not to be named as the information is not yet public. The company is preparing to appoint administrators from UHY Hacker Young, and could file as soon as today.

In central England, birthplace of the industrial revolution, factories are buzzing anew, hammering out parts for cars, planes and medical machines that used to be made in Asia, Reuters reported. After two years of global supply-chain disruption, and with dark clouds on the horizon, manufacturers around Britain's second city of Birmingham say they are inundated with orders, helped by new and old domestic clients bringing some production back home. For decades, supplier decisions were based largely on price.

Ukraine is fighting for its survival and is desperate for cash, but that isn’t deterring London hedge-fund manager Richard Deitz from demanding money back from an ill-fated investment there, the Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Deitz’s VR Capital has a long history of making money in countries going through upheaval. His fund paid $123 million in 2019 to buy distressed loans issued by state-owned Ukrainian Railways, hoping they could work out a repayment and get a double-digit return.

Germany’s economy hasn’t grown for nearly five years. Its recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic has been weaker than any major advanced economy. Its ability to fill its energy needs is in question. And now the country once known as the economic engine of Europe is teetering on the brink of a recession, the Wall Street Journal reported. It’s a sharp turn of fortunes for Germany’s large manufacturing sector, which flourished over the past two decades just as other Western nations saw industrial jobs migrate to Asia.

Ukraine’s state-run energy company NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy said it is still trying to negotiate a deal with holders of around $1.4 billion of its bonds after the government forced it to miss a deadline on Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported. The company will “urgently” present a new plan for bondholders, it said in an emailed statement. Naftogaz on Tuesday said it’s on track to default as a grace period to redeem $335 million of bonds due last week expired.

European energy extended a scorching rally as Russia tightened its grip on the region’s supply, further threatening the economy and key markets, Bloomberg News reported. Natural gas increased as much as 14%, and prices are more than 10 times higher than the usual level for this time of the year, as supplies through a key pipeline slumped. The surge is crippling Europe’s industrial output, driving up household bills and pushing inflation to the highest in decades. It’s also fed through to the power market with German futures rising to unprecedented levels, before easing on Wednesday.

Britain’s biggest mortgage lender expects the housing market to slow in the coming year, as rising interest rates make loans more expensive for borrowers and property prices finally begin to fall, Bloomberg News reported. Charlie Nunn, chief executive officer of Lloyds Banking Group Plc, said the bank’s open mortgage book rose just 1% in the three months through June and now stands at £296.6 billion.