The United Kingdom's 25-year-old model of importing cheap labour has been up-ended by Brexit and COVID-19, sowing the seeds for a 1970s-style winter of discontent complete with worker shortages, spiralling wage demands and price rises, Reuters reported. Leaving the European Union, followed by the chaos of the biggest public health crisis in a century, has plunged the world's fifth-largest economy into a sudden attempt to kick its addiction to cheap imported labour.

Business growth across Europe remained strong last month but elevated inflationary pressures put a dent in demand while ongoing supply issues constrained activity, issues which are likely to continue, a survey showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Although many restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic have now been lifted in the region, firms are suffering from shortages of staff, raw materials and transport.

France and Spain on Monday called for a coordinated European response to the surge in global energy prices to protect Europe's poorest citizens, the competitiveness of its businesses and its 2050 plan to cut greenhouse emissions, Reuters reported. The call, along with ideas shared by European Union governments during talks between euro zone finance ministers in Luxembourg, would complement the European Commission's work to address the energy price spike, the chairman of the meeting said.

Ireland does not expect Britain to trigger a clause in Northern Ireland's fraught post-Brexit trading deal to unilaterally jettison some of its terms, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said, Reuters reported. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that it was possible the British government would trigger "Article 16" if the European Union did not make appropriate concessions to ease the burden of trading restrictions on Northern Ireland.

A test case relating to Covid-19 business interruption insurance is to go ahead in the Commercial Court using a hybrid remote and physical hearing arrangement, the Irish Times reported. With the Courts Service investing €2.2 million this year to ensure courtrooms are video-link enabled, the case, to be heard over three days later this month, involves the operators of the Old Imperial Hotel in Youghal, Co Cork, and a Slovenia-based insurance company.

French economic growth will return to around 1.4% a year as public investment to spur the recovery from the Covid pandemic offsets the damage from a sharp recession, according to long-term government forecasts, Bloomberg News reported. President Emmanuel Macron’s government expects stronger growth rates in the short term as activity catches up with pre-crisis levels around the end of this year. As that surge fades, a 100 billion-euro ($116 billion) stimulus plan should ensure growth potential stabilizes at around 1.35%, a social-economic report published Monday shows.

British Treasury chief Rishi Sunak promised Monday to deliver an economy based on “good work, better skills and higher wages,” as the governing Conservative Party tried to shrug off the U.K.’s economic turmoil as the growing pains of a thriving, self-reliant post-Brexit economy, the Associated Press reported. Sunak touted the U.K.’s low unemployment rate of under 5% as a sign it is putting pandemic disruptions behind it. He said now that Britain has left the European Union, it will embrace “the agility, flexibility and freedom provided by Brexit” to create a dynamic, high-tech economy.

Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) has won the auction for Morrisons with a 7 billion pound ($9.5 billion) bid, paving the way for the U.S. private equity firm to take control of Britain's fourth-biggest supermarket group, Reuters reported. The board of Morrisons recommended CD&R's 287 pence per share bid on Saturday, hours after its bid beat a consortium led by Softbank owned Fortress Investment Group, which had made an offer worth just a penny less per share at 286 pence.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis denied any wrongdoing on Sunday in connection with an international investigative report that listed him among current and former world politicians and businessmen that it says have used offshore financial structures, Reuters reported. The Pandora Papers report, by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, said Babis moved $22 million through offshore companies to buy an estate on the French Riviera in 2009 while keeping his ownership secret. The report did not say the transactions broke the law.

The Czech central bank pledged to keep raising borrowing costs after lifting interest rates by the most in nearly a quarter century, pushing the koruna higher and angering the government with the European Union’s most aggressive anti-inflationary campaign, Bloomberg News reported. Policy makers increased the benchmark rate by 75 basis points to 1.5% on Thursday, exceeding expectations for a half-point increase.