The Italian economy fell into a technical recession in the last half of 2018 after a sharp increase in government borrowing costs and political uncertainty driven by Rome’s populist government’s stand-off with Brussels over its budget plans, the Financial Times reported. Official preliminary data showed that Italian gross domestic product contracted by 0.2 per cent in the last three months of 2018, following an 0.1 per cent drop in the third quarter. The contraction was worse than average forecasts of economists of a 0.1 per cent drop in GDP in the fourth quarter.

Freelance contractors caught in a controversial tax avoidance row with HM Revenue & Customs could be granted up to seven years to repay debts, MPs were told, as the campaign to scrap the charges gathers momentum, the Financial Times reported. People earning less than £30,000 a year who face difficulty paying the loan charge — a new tax due to come in on April 5 that could affect between 50,000 to 100,000 people — will automatically be given seven years to pay, the authority told MPs at a Treasury select committee on Wednesday.

Eight banks are being targeted in a European Union probe that alleges traders colluded to acquire and trade euro government bonds, a month after the EU regulators implicated lenders in a separate bond-trading case, Bloomberg News reported. The European Commission didn’t identify the banks being investigated for "a collusive scheme that aimed at distorting competition" for trading sovereign bonds issued by eurozone governments from 2007 to 2012.

The number of British restaurant insolvencies hit a record high in 2018 and have doubled since 2010, a study by accountants Price Bailey showed on Wednesday as the sector struggles with market saturation and competition from delivery apps, Reuters reported. There were 1,442 restaurant insolvencies in 2018, up 40 percent compared to 2017, Insolvency Service data obtained by Price Bailey showed. Four restaurant businesses a day are going bust, up from under two a day in 2010.

Kosovo will offer its loss-making state-owned telecom company to private investors by the end of the year, the country’s economy minister said on Wednesday, its third attempt to sell a stake in the company in the past decade, Reuters reported. In 2013 the government cancelled an already agreed sale to Germany’s ACP Axos Capital Gmbh and U.S.-based investor Najafi after failing to secure parliament backing for the 277 million euro deal.

Eurozone business sentiment fell in January to the lowest level in two years amid a decline in executives’ view of current conditions and their outlook for the future, the Financial Times reported. A European Commission gauge of business climate across the bloc fell 0.17 points to 0.69 in January from the previous month. This was worse than the reading of 0.75 forecast by economists in a Reuters poll. “Managers’ assessment of the past production worsened significantly.

A consortium building Turkey’s Gebze-Orhangazi-Izmir motorway has started seeking international advisers to value the project ahead of a possible stake sale, Otoyol Investment company said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. In a first stage, the consortium will determine the value of the project and potential buyers, the consortium, which includes Italian construction group Astaldi, said in a statement. “It is a lengthy process to sell a stake in a project of this scale,” the consortium said, adding it would be up to the partners to decide whether to dispose of their share.

U.K. consumer confidence continued to decline in January due to Brexit uncertainty, sinking to the lowest since May 2013, YouGov said Tuesday. The polling company’s index of optimism dropped by 0.1 points to 104.3, well below where it was before Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, Bloomberg News reported. Expectations for job security slumped and predictions of business activity fell to the lowest since records began in 2011.

The number of Britons falling into insolvency soared in late 2018, according to official data that will likely add to unease over the health of Britain’s consumer-led economy ahead of Brexit, Reuters reported. There were 34,108 individual insolvencies in England and Wales during the fourth quarter, the most since the second quarter of 2010 and up 35 percent on a year ago, the government’s Insolvency Service said on Tuesday. The increase was driven by a record number of Individual Voluntary Arrangements — agreements to repay creditors that are short of declaring bankruptcy.

More than 11,600 borrowers received advice and support from Abhaile, the State’s mortgage arrears and debt resolution service over a two-year period, according to a recent report, The Irish Times reported. The Department of Justice and Equality, and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, who co-ordinate the scheme, published annual reports reviewing the take up and outcomes of Abhaile between July 2016 and June 2018.