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.

Greece announced plans to return to bond markets and increase the minimum wage Monday, amid protests against bailout-era measures by farmers who used tractors to block the country's main highway. Authorities unveiled plans to issue a 5-year bond, a first market test since the end of Greece's international bailout in August. In a televised address, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the minimum wage would be increased by nearly 10 percent starting next month — from 586 euros per month to 650 euros, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story.

Investors are calling on ratings agencies to downgrade leveraged loans with overly aggressive documentation, as weak lender protection continues to cause concern, Reuters reported. Moody’s European covenant quality indicator hit a record low in the fourth quarter of 3.83, which is the lowest figure since the ratings agency established the monitor in 2012. The statistic focuses on high-yield bonds but analysts say loans are in a similar state. Covenant-lite loans, which offer little protection for lenders, have become established as the market norm.

Business confidence among Germany’s exporters has taken a dive in the past year as any “ray of hope” even a month ago in the carmaking industry has been dashed, figures from an influential research house showed. Export expectations in manufacturing fell to 5.9 points in January, from 19.9 a year ago, the Financial Times reported. The index has more than halved in the past two months, the Ifo Institute’s survey revealed on Monday. In November expectations were at 12.2. “The new year is marked by worries among German manufacturers,” said the report.

German airlines group Lufthansa has held talks to take a majority stake in ailing Italian carrier Alitalia and would be interested in a full takeover in the long run, Lufthansa board member Harry Hohmeister said on Monday, Reuters reported. Alitalia, which was put under special administration in 2017, would remain operationally independent within the Lufthansa group, with its own brand, he said. Lufthansa has been a key player in hectic M&A activity in the industry, snapping up Brussels Airlines and parts of insolvent Air Berlin in 2017 to expand in the budget market.

Intesa Sanpaolo SpA is preparing a sale of non-performing loans from a 15.6 billion-euro ($17.8 billion) pool of debt on its books categorized as “unlikely-to-pay,” according to four people familiar with the discussions, Bloomberg News reported. The loans are backed by real-estate and corporate assets, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The Italian lender has yet to decide how much of the debt it will sell and is still consulting investors to gauge demand, the people said.

Europe’s retail crisis deepened as companies in the U.K. and Germany are set to cut thousands of jobs as online shopping accelerates the erosion of sales from traditional bricks-and-mortar stores, Bloomberg News reported. Tesco, the biggest U.K. grocer, will eliminate about 15,000 positions and close meat, fish and delicatessen counters, the Mail on Sunday reported, citing unidentified industry sources.

Italy’s Carige said on Friday it had issued 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) in state-guaranteed debt after the Rome government approved the emergency liquidity measure earlier this month to prop up the ailing bank, Reuters. Italy rushed to set up a 1.3 billion euro fund to support Carige after the European Central Bank put the bank under temporary administration on Jan. 2 following a failed attempt to raise new capital from investors. Carige said it had issued two bonds worth 1 billion euros each.