The European Union’s budget chief pushed back against the idea of raising new joint debt to weather the impact of the ongoing war in Ukraine and to finance the bloc’s defense and energy priorities, Bloomberg News reported. Instead, Johannes Hahn urged member states to use more than 1 trillion euros ($1.1 trillion) of EU funds available to cope with the current crisis. “Honestly, there is money and there is still flexibility to discuss the use of funds,” the budget commissioner said in an interview.

Across Europe, governments are slashing fuel taxes and doling out tens of billions to help consumers, truckers, farmers and others cope with spiking energy prices made worse by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But it’s not enough for some whose livelihoods hinge on fuel, the Associated Press reported. Miguel Ángel Rodriguez was one of 200 concrete truck drivers who held a slow-driving protest around Madrid this week. He said filling up used to cost 1,600 euros ($1,760) a month, but he’s been forking out an extra 500 euros since the start of the year because of the rising price of diesel.

German retirees will get a hefty pension increase this year, a result largely of higher wages in Europe’s biggest economy as inflation has climbed sharply, the government said Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. The Labor Ministry said pensions will increase by 5.35% in the former West Germany on July 1 and by 6.12% in the formerly communist east. There was no increase in the west last year and an increase of 0.72% in the east as the economy was hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Russian steel giant Severstal was racing against the clock on Wednesday to avoid becoming the country's first major corporate default since the Ukraine crisis began, with international payment lines snarled by sanctions, Reuters reported. Severstal, whose main shareholder Alexey Mordashov is one of a number of wealthy Russians now sanctioned by the European Union, has until the end of the day to get an already overdue $12.6 million loan 'coupon' payment to its creditors.

Foreign holders of Russia’s sovereign bond maturing in 2029 are watching as the latest debt payment from the sanctioned nation draws closer to completion, Bloomberg News reported. The $66 million coupon due March 21 was processed Tuesday by Russia’s National Settlement Depository, it said in a statement. Earlier in the day, the Finance Ministry said it had transferred the cash to the NSD, thus meeting its obligations “in full.” Four bondholders in Europe said they hadn’t received the payment as of 3.40 p.m. in London.

Annual inflation in Russia accelerated to 14.53% as of March 18, its highest since November 2015 and up from 12.54% a week earlier, the economy ministry said on Wednesday, as the battered rouble sent prices soaring amid unprecedented Western sanctions, Reuters reported. Inflation accelerated sharply as the currency fell to an all-time low earlier in March and demand for a wide range of goods, from food staples to cars, rose sharply on expectations that their prices will rise further.

EU companies affected by sanctions imposed on Russia can get up to 400,000 euros ($440,360) in state support and compensation up to 30% of energy costs under looser EU state aid rules, the European Commission said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. From airlines to carmakers to tourism businesses, thousands of companies across the 27-country bloc have reported severe disruption due to the sanctions. Companies in the agriculture, fisheries, aquaculture sectors can get up to 35,000 euros while businesses facing a liquidity crunch can get state guarantees on loans, subsidised loans.

The U.K. Treasury will pocket about 27 billion pounds ($36 billion) more a year in revenue than previously forecast despite eye-catching tax cuts on pay announced in its Spring economic statement on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported. The figures, buried in documents from the Treasury and Office for Budget Responsibility, leave Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak presiding over the highest tax burden since Clement Attlee’s Labour government in 1949.

The U.K. plans to sell fewer bonds than expected over the coming fiscal year, softening the blow of the first borrowing package in over a decade that will be financed without the help of the Bank of England, Bloomberg News reported. Britain will sell 124.7 billion pounds ($165 billion) of gilts in 2022-23, around a fifth less than the median expectation in a Bloomberg survey of primary dealers. The nation’s Debt Management Office said it will also sell 23.2 billion pounds of bills to fulfill the U.K.’s funding requirements.

The United States and Britain ended a four-year dispute over U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs on Tuesday, pledging to work together to counter China in a deal that also removes retaliatory tariffs from U.S. motorcycles, whiskey and other products, Reuters reported. In a joint statement, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S.