The European Central Bank is expected to resist pressure to unveil fresh stimulus measures on Thursday but it will likely pave the way for action in December as fresh restrictions aimed at containing the coronavirus pandemic fuel fears over a new recession, Reuters reported. Having already lined up unprecedented firepower to prop up the 19-member currency bloc’s economy, the ECB is in no hurry to act, as its ongoing bond buying could keep markets calm well into next year. Policymakers also appear keen to push governments to take the lead.

SA’s second-largest diamond producer has noted a one-fifth increase in rough diamond prices as its three SA mines recovered from the lockdown, but it’s not enough to stave off a massively dilutive debt restructuring plan, Business Day reported. London-listed Petra Diamonds, which is engaged in a plan to address a $650m bond that falls due in 2022 and which would dilute existing shareholders to a mere 9% stake in the miner, reported a decline in production in the quarter to end-September, the first of its financial year. Consolidated debt was $688m at the end of September.

Banks are pulling back from lending to European businesses and households as they braced themselves for a rise in bad loans due to the economic impact of the pandemic, a European Central Bank survey has shown, the Financial Times reported.

The proportion of emerging market high-yield companies who have seen their liquidity position weaken in September has climbed back to June’s record high, with firms in Latin America driving the overall increase, Moody’s said in a research report, Reuters reported. The reading of Moody’s emerging markets liquidity stress indicator returned to an all-time high of 25.8% last month - up 1 percentage point from August and compared with its long-term average of just under 20%, Moody’s found. A rising trend indicates upward pressure on default rates.

Nearly 200 airports in Europe will face insolvency in the coming months if passenger traffic does not start recovering by the end of the year, airports body ACI Europe said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. An estimated 193 European hubs are considered “at-risk airports”, ACI said, adding that they contribute to economic activity that creates 277,000 jobs and 12.4 billion euros ($14.66 billion) of European GDP.

The municipality of Amsterdam is introducing a pause button for people with problematic debts, AlKhaleej Today reported. This measure prevents them from receiving direct debits and reminders until a payment process has been found with the help of a debt counselor. Amsterdam hopes with this measure to offer peace of mind to people who are in debt. “Debts lead to a lot of stress. People in debt lose their jobs more often and often have more relationship stress. Financial problems can even lead to a decrease in IQ”, says Alderman Marjolein Moorman.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG told staff that winter schedule cutbacks announced last week will cause it to bench an additional 125 aircraft and temporarily close large parts of its administrative operations, Bloomberg News reported. The reduction will cut the carrier’s active fleet back to the level it operated in the 1970s, with the impact filtering through its operations, it said in a letter to employees seen by Bloomberg. Lufthansa had previously intended to use the planes in an already reduced schedule for the coming months, it said in the letter.

New restrictions imposed across Europe to curb the spread of Covid-19 forced Europcar Mobility Group to withdraw its earnings guidance for the remainder of this year, with the firm anticipating a return to pre-virus trading only by 2023, Bloomberg News reported. The French car rental group pulled its prediction for the 2020 financial year “due to the uncertainties derived from the second wave” of the virus, it said in a statement on Monday as it presented its third quarter results.

In recent weeks, moratoria on bank loans have expired in some EU countries and, anecdotally, payments have resumed with only a small fraction showing distress. Yet the macroeconomic outlook is uncertain and we cannot rule out a weak recovery with a significant build-up of bad loans, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. The European Central Bank estimates that in a severe but plausible scenario non-performing loans at euro area banks could reach €1.4tn, well above the levels of the 2008 financial and 2011 EU sovereign debt crises.

The Greek government's opposition is trying to block new insolvency legislation that it argues would leave vulnerable mortgage holders more exposed to repossession during the pandemic, Yahoo! Finance reported. The conservative government is overhauling its bankruptcy regulations, replacing a protection program for distressed loans on primary homes, which expired in July, with a state subsidy program. The government says the proposed changes would be better targeted and would ease pressure on banks still coping with a mountain of loans left unpaid during years of financial crisis.