Optimism in Spain’s services sector fell to a five-year low in August, amid rising input costs and a slowdown in new business growth, according to data released on Wednesday by IHS Markit, the Financial Times reported. Spain’s purchasing managers’ index fell to 52.1, below an analyst forecast of 52.7 according to a Reuters poll, as new orders rose at their slower pace since 2016. Although executives felt that the sector had continued to grow overall — a reading over 50 denotes growth — this was at a “much weaker” rate than earlier in the year, said economists at IHS Markit.

Since Italy’s coalition government took power, its first budget plans have loomed as the likely trigger for a showdown between Rome and Brussels. The anti-establishment Five Star party and anti-migrant League campaigned on a platform of expensive policies such as a flat tax reform and a universal basic income, ambitions that seemed likely to collide with a European Commission deeply nervous about Italy’s vast debt pile, the Financial Times reported.

UK restaurant chain Gaucho is to be bought out of administration by two banks Investec and SC Lowry, as part of a rescue deal that will keep open all 16 Gaucho restaurants and save about 750 jobs, the Financial Times reported. The deal is subject to Gaucho’s creditors accepting a “ company voluntary arrangement”, an agreement that allows ailing businesses to restructure their debt.

Erik Heim, the CEO of Nordic Aquafarms, says his company will not be hindered in its construction of new recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) Atlantic salmon facilities in both Belfast, Maine, and Fredrikstad, Norway, by the news that vendor Inter Aqua Advance (IAA) has filed for bankruptcy protection, Undercurrent News reported. "We are working with a portfolio of vendors, including several RAS vendors, in addition to our internal engineering department that is growing," Heim said in an email to Undercurrent News.

In 2006, three business luminaries huddled in Belgrade for a meeting so veiled in secrecy that it acquired a mystical code name: Hercules. The three titans wanted to test their strength by creating a giant retail company to dominate across the former Yugoslavia, Bloomberg News reported. The executives -- Ivica Todoric of Croatia’s Agrokor d.d., Zoran Jankovic of Slovenia’s Mercator Poslovni Sistem and Miroslav Miskovic of Serbia’s Delta Holding -- haggled for six hours before giving up, unable to agree on ownership stakes. It was a lucky escape for two of them.

The Austrian presidency of the European Union has asked the bloc’s finance ministers and central bankers to discuss a hike in interest rates in meetings to be held later this week in Vienna, Reuters reported. In a move that could be seen as a partial encroachment on the powers of the European Central Bank, the Austrian government, which holds for the EU’s rotating presidency, wants to hold a discussion on “financial stability implications of increasing interest rates,” a document seen by Reuters said.

British convenience retailer McColl’s Retail Group Plc posted on Tuesday lower like-for-like sales in the third quarter and said the collapse of cigarette wholesaler Palmer & Harvey (P&H) last year continued to disrupt its supply chain, Reuters reported. Like-for-like sales fell 0.9 percent for the 13 weeks ended Aug. 26 at McColl’s, which trades from about 1,600 convenience stores and newsagents in Britain. Total revenue rose 0.6 percent in the quarter.

Emso Asset Management, the $5.5bn emerging markets hedge fund, is to enter India’s growing corporate restructuring market with a local partner, the latest global investor to target a wave of $140bn in bad debt in the country, the Financial Times reported. A new bankruptcy law is forcing some of India’s biggest conglomerates into restructuring as local banks struggle with mounting bad debts following a boom in industrial lending.

Europe’s failure to reform out-dated pension systems has created a “ticking time bomb” for the region’s public finances, accord to HSBC Holdings Plc, Bloomberg News reported. Those nations with the highest debt levels are the most at risk, while political U-turns on recent reforms threaten to compound the situation, the London-based bank said. Italy could see its borrowings rise to 150 percent of economic output by 2040, even without the populist government’s proposed rollbacks.

Homebase creditors have approved a proposal to close 42 stores, putting 1,500 jobs at risk but giving the British home improvement retailer a lifeline from the brink of collapse, the company said on Friday. The proposed closures are further evidence of the deteriorating outlook for British retail sector, Reuters reported. They are part of a so-called Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) restructuring, allowing the business to avoid insolvency or administration. Homebase said the restructuring plan, proposed this month, was approved by 95.92 percent of the company’s creditors.