An Irish Government Minister has suggested it will be possible for taxes owed by struggling small businesses to be written down in new “examinership-lite” proposals that could be enacted before the summer, the Irish Times reported.

British retail sales jumped last month before a partial lifting of coronavirus restrictions, suggesting an economic rebound is underway, but official data also showed record peacetime government borrowing, Reuters reported.

The U.K. scaled back its bond sale plans by more than expected after the budget deficit undershot official forecasts during a pandemic-blighted year that ravaged the public finances, Bloomberg News reported.

Prime Minister Mario Draghi is seeking to restart Italy’s economy through a plan based on about 200 billion euros ($241 billion) of European Union funding, with most of the cash allocated to digitalization and transitioning to green technologies, according to a draft seen by Bloomberg.

Jupiter Fund Management Plc and Invesco Asset Management are set to take over Codere SA as part of a deal to restructure the gaming firm’s debt, Bloomberg News reported. The Madrid-based company reached an agreement with a group of creditors, also including PGIM Ltd.

German chancellor Angela Merkel rejected criticism of her lobbying for Wirecard in China months before it collapsed, telling lawmakers she had no reason to suspect the firm of criminality as she sought to help it do business there, Reuters reported.

The number of U.K. businesses in significant financial distress jumped the most in at least seven years last quarter, with firms across all sectors seeing their situation deteriorate, Bloomberg News reported. There are 723,000 companies facing serious problems, according to research by intelligence provider Begbies Traynor published Thursday. That’s a 15% increase from the end of last year, and the biggest quarterly increase since it began publishing the data in 2014. From a year ago, the number has climbed 42%.

The Irish High Court has approved a survival plan for the troubled airline Norwegian Air and related companies, the Irish Times reported. In a written decision Mr. Justice Michael Quinn said he was satisfied to approve the scheme put together by the airline’s examiner Kieran Wallace of KPMG. The airline’s Oslo-based parent company and several of its Irish-registered subsidiaries had sought the protection of the Irish courts due to factors including the devastating impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the airline industry and international travel.