The Dutch government expects its debt-to-GDP ratio to have risen to 57.4% by the end of 2020 as a result of heavy spending to support the economy during the coronavirus pandemic, it said on Monday, Reuters reported. Dutch debt to gross domestic product (GDP) stood at 48.7% at the end of 2020, making it one of the few countries to adhere to euro zone rules that allow a maximum of 60%. The budget deficit will be around 6.2% this year, the finance ministry said, high but below a forecast of 7.2% given by Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra in September.

Borr Drilling, a Norwegian contractor of shallow water drilling rigs, warned on Monday that the company continued to face a “very challenging” financial situation after reporting $61.9 million in net loss for the third quarter, Reuters reported. The company said it continued talks with its creditors to improve its liquidity and it was ready to take part in the industry’s consolidation as a number of its peers filed for bankruptcy protection after the latest oil market crash.

Corporate defaults are a growing risk for next year, although central bank stimulus and a COVID-19 vaccine will provide support, Russell Investments’ CIO for fixed income and EMEA said on Monday, Reuters reported. “You’ve got the vaccine news, you’ve got the stimulus in the background, you’ve got low interest rates,” Gerard Fitzpatrick told the Reuters Global Investment Outlook Summit. “On the flip side, there is definitely a rising risk relating to default risk. We’re not out of the woods relating to COVID.

Euro zone finance ministers agreed on Monday to move ahead with stalled changes to their ESM bailout fund to strengthen the resilience of the common currency area as the COVID-19 pandemic increases risks of future economic trouble, Reuters reported. After almost a year since their agreement “in principle” on widening the responsibilities of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), ministers from the 19 countries sharing the euro currency gave the deal a final go-ahead for ratification.

British tycoon Philip Green’s Arcadia fashion group has collapsed into administration, putting over 13,000 jobs at risk and becoming the country’s biggest corporate casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic so far, Reuters reported. Deloitte said late on Monday it had been appointed Arcadia’s administrator and would seek buyers for the group’s brands: Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Miss Selfridge, Evans, Burton and Outfit. The group trades from 444 leased sites in the United Kingdom and 22 overseas.

The UK has spent more money fighting coronavirus than almost all comparable countries but still languishes towards the bottom of league tables of economic performance in 2020 and deaths caused by the virus, according to Financial Times research. On Wednesday, the independent Office for Budget Responsibility said the UK’s economy was set to shrink by 11.3 per cent in 2020, while the government would need to borrow £394bn to fund a shortfall in taxes and £280bn in public spending to fight Covid-19. Compared with the average of other G7 leading economies, the cost to the UK governmen

British banks are finalizing plans for outsourcing the recovery of billions of pounds in taxpayer-backed business loans issued during the Covid-19 pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. A consortium of lenders is expected to set up an entity that will oversee debt collectors tasked with chasing bad loans, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The funeral directors will have to wait for their big get-together. So will the toymakers, the equestrians and the vegans. All those groups and many more had scheduled trade fairs to take place in Germany in recent months. But these rituals of business life, a chance for people to make deals, check out the competition and commune with others in the same walk of life, are in crisis, the International New York Times reported. The mass cancellation of trade fairs has been a disaster for hotels, restaurants and taxi drivers around the world, but especially in Germany.

Philip Green’s Arcadia Group is poised to seek protection from creditors as soon as Monday and become the most notable U.K. retail insolvency since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The owner of brands including Topshop and Topman saw its sales decimated by forced store closures and, over the weekend, stepped up plans to file for administration, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the information is private.

Ten years ago today, Ireland went into the arms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Following weeks of speculation, rumours and semi-denial, the government accepted the inevitable. Economic sovereignty was lost, The Irish Times reported. It was the most extraordinary and the most depressing moment in Irish economic history.