Italy’s new populist government is facing a difficult decision: How to reconcile its expensive election promises with the reality of the country’s fragile finances. It is a test of whether Europe’s rising antiestablishment parties can bring change to countries still bearing the scars of the Continent’s long economic downturn—or whether the constraints of life in the eurozone will force them to follow policies they long denounced, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The liquidators of the former Anglo Irish Bank claim a US legal action by businessman Paddy McKillen over his “Maple 10” loan is an attempt to frustrate their work. Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson, the liquidators of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, claim the action taken by Mr McKillen and his partner Tony Leonard in July is an attempt to “end-run IBRC’s properly commenced recovery action in Ireland” through a “poorly disguised” adversary proceeding, The Irish Times reported.

The UK Pension Regulator is facing criticism over a 2013 deal that allowed Kodak UK to jettison it pension liabilities but now looks set to create a £600m hit to the country’s pensions bailout fund, the Financial Times reported. Kodak had sought approval from the regulator to be released from its duty to support its 15,000 member retirement plan, following the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Eastman Kodak, its US parent company, in 2012.

Unemployment in the UK now stands at its lowest level in four decades. Gross domestic product growth at the start of the third quarter of 2018 also shows an economy in decent shape, having grown faster than in the prior two quarters. But we should not be complacent about those numbers. The UK faces the highest risk of recession of any of the 13 economies for which The Conference Board tracks business cycles and our leading economic index suggests the British economy may start shrinking over the course of the next year, the Financial Times reported in a commentary.

Britain will support Zimbabwe to get on to an interim IMF staff program to help the country quickly clear its foreign arrears, Britain's ambassador in Harare said on Tuesday. Clearing the $1.8 billion in arrears to the World Bank and African Development Bank is seen as a major step for Zimbabwe to start accessing foreign credit, especially for the private sector as well as foreign direct investment, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Denmark’s status as one of the world’s least corrupt nations is being challenged by allegations that its biggest bank, Danske Bank A/S, was a central pipeline for channeling billions in illegal funds across Europe from Russia, Moldova and Azerbaijan, Bloomberg News reported. An internal bank report is expected on Sept. 19 to detail just what happened. The biggest money-laundering scandal in modern Danish history won’t end there.

Italian prosecutors said on Tuesday the far-right League can repay some 45 million euros ($53 million) it owes the state over the next 75 years, saving the governing party from possible bankruptcy, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. A court ruled this month that prosecutors in the northern city of Genoa could seize some 49 million euros from accounts and businesses belonging to the party following a fraud investigation.

Europe’s most senior bankers pleaded in concert with the European Union to speed up its banking and capital markets union projects, warning that the region risks falling further behind the U.S. and China in the global economy, Bloomberg News reported. “If you really want to have a competitive edge” versus the Americas and Asia, “we must complete the banking union,” Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing said Tuesday at the Bloomberg European Capital Markets Forum in Milan.

London-based emerging market fund Gemcorp Group said on Monday it had extended a $250 million loan to Zimbabwe to help the country import essential goods like electricity, fuel and medicine, the company's CEO said. The southern African nation is facing its worst shortages of cash dollars since it dumped its own currency in 2009 in favour of the U.S. currency. This has made it difficult for companies, including mines, to pay for imports, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Brazil’s Natura Cosmeticos SA recently approached Avon Products Inc. about a takeover, according to people familiar with the matter. The companies aren’t in serious talks and Avon, which has received other expressions of interest, is focused on turning itself around and reviving its shares, one of the people said. Following years of decline in its once-formidable direct-sales business, Avon had a market value as of Monday’s close of just $900 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.