Europe’s economy is sliding towards a double-dip recession, with economists warning that rising coronavirus infections and fresh government restrictions on people’s movement are likely to cut short the region’s recent recovery, the Financial Times reported. Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands have all announced measures in the past week to contain the second wave of Covid-19 infections, with more expected in the coming days. Belgium on Sunday announced the closure of all bars and cafés for four weeks, while Switzerland widened its mandate for wearing masks.

The English High Court appointed Ben Cairns and Richard Fleming of Alvarez & Marsal as joint administrators of NMC Health on 9 April 2020, but NMC Health’s operating subsidiaries in the Middle East, including its 36 UAE-incorporated subsidiaries (the NMC Companies), are not within the jurisdiction of the English courts and are not part of the English administration process, JD Supra reported. On 27 September 2020, however, the Courts of Abu Dhabi Global Market (the ADGM Courts) placed the NMC Companies into administration and appointed Ben Cairns and Richard Fleming as administrators.

Irish households and businesses secured the second-highest level of payment breaks from banks at the height of the coronavirus pandemic across a group of 11 western European countries, according to a report from debt ratings agency DBRS Morningstar, The Irish Times reported. Some 13.4 per cent of Irish loans across the State’s three domestic banks were subject to payment freezes at the end of June, second to Portuguese loans at 21.5 per cent, and almost double the 7 per cent average, the report said. German loans came in at the other end of the scale, at 1.6 per cent.

The High Court has appointed provisional liquidators to two related companies that operate 13 Pamela Scott and Richard Alan retail stores across the Republic, The Irish Times reported. The court heard the companies sought to be liquidated after coming under pressure from landlords, changes to the wage subsidy scheme, a sustained reduction in footfall, and further restrictions expected imminently due to the increasing number of Covid-19 infections.

A sale of Banca Monte dei Paschi to UniCredit would be inappropriate after UniCredit announced it would appoint former Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan as chairman, lawmakers from Italy’s ruling 5-Star Movement said, Reuters reported. Padoan oversaw the bailout of Italy’s oldest bank, Monte dei Paschi, back in 2017, with Rome spending 5.4 billion euros ($6.31 billion) on a 68% stake. Under an agreement with European Union authorities, the stake must be sold by mid-2022. “It would be paradoxical if, after the public commitment that provided for a support of several billion euros ...

Germany’s economy is losing steam but will do slightly better than government forecasts as fears grow over rising coronavirus infections, according to the country’ s five leading research institutes, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product will contract by 5.4% in 2020 and grow 4.7% next year, the experts predicted in their latest bi-annual outlook published Wednesday. In their spring report, they expected a contraction of 4.2% this year and growth of 5.8% in 2021.

Banks are putting the brakes on U.K. commercial real estate lending as the pandemic batters the economy and stokes fears about looming defaults, Bloomberg News reported. New loans declined in the first half by 34% from a year earlier to 15.5 billion pounds ($20.2 billion), according to a report from The Business School in the City of London. More than a fifth of lenders surveyed said they made no new commercial property loans in the period. The coronavirus has plunged the U.K. into a painful recession.

Rich nations, development banks and private creditors need to ramp up support for poorer countries to prevent humanitarian crises and a “lost decade” of global growth, the prominent G30 group of former policymakers and academics said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. How to support struggling countries is the most pressing issue being discussed during the virtual annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank this week amid warnings 150 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty by the end of next year. The G30, which includes former U.S.

The Swiss government will not extend beyond next week emergency measures it imposed in April designed to prevent the coronavirus pandemic from driving otherwise healthy companies into bankruptcy, it said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The decree that suspended companies’ obligation to report overindebtedness will expire as planned on Oct. 19, it said. “The (government) is convinced that there is a need for great restraint when interfering with the economic cycle. Relief for debtors, for example a deferral, always means a burden for creditors and for the entire economy.

Forecasts for the global economy are “somewhat less dire” as rich nations and China have rebounded quicker than expected from coronavirus lockdowns, but the outlook for many emerging markets has worsened, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The IMF forecast a 2020 global contraction of 4.4% in its latest World Economic Outlook, an improvement over a 5.2% contraction predicted in June, when pandemic-related business closures reached their peak.