To wire a car, you need copper. To make batteries, you need zinc. And to build a house, you need both of these metals and more -- steel for the pipes, aluminum for the frames and tin for the roof, the Financial Times reported. Base metals like these are used in thousands of different ways in nearly every industry, so many analysts look at their prices for a read on the global economy. Recently the Bank of England’s Tom Wise wrote about this dynamic and found that metal consumption tracks PPP-weighted global GDP growth.

Greece is planning a return to the markets in a bid to regain its status as a “normal” country. If the government can announce by the end of the year its program for tapping the markets in 2019, and repeat this exercise each year for the following 12 months, the plan will have worked, an official familiar with the matter said. After losing more than a quarter of its economic output during the past decade, Europe’s most indebted country is now trying to stand on its own feet again, Bloomberg News reported.

The number of people in England and Wales filing for insolvency hit a more than six-year high in the second quarter, adding to conflicting economic signals for Bank of England officials as they consider whether to raise interest rates next week, Reuters reported. Seasonally adjusted data from the Insolvency Service showed 28,951 people registered as insolvent between April and June — up 27 percent on a year ago and the largest total since early 2012 when Britain last flirted with recession.

The UK financial regulator is planning to crack down on peer-to-peer lenders and crowdfunding platforms, following concerns that investors could be taking on more risk than they realise, the Finacnial Times reported. In a long-awaited review of the sector published on Friday, the Financial Conduct Authority proposed tougher rules for the peer-to-peer industry, which has grown dramatically in the last decade as banks have retreated from high-risk lending and interest rates have fallen.

Dozens of senior executives at Ireland’s biggest bank have been poached by rivals expanding in Dublin because of Brexit, prompting its chief executive to warn that the country’s stringent pay cap makes it hard to keep them, the Financial Times reported. Bernard Byrne, head of Allied Irish Banks, told the Financial Times that a “mid-teens” percentage of its 200 most senior managers have left since its privatisation last year, many hired by companies that are bulking up in Ireland ahead of Brexit, a list that includes Bank of America, Barclays and Citigroup.

Greece is scheduled to exit its marathon bailout this summer after hitting the tough fiscal targets set by its creditors. But the country has done so by raising taxes so high that they are strangling the small businesses that form the backbone of its economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. At the Dandy restaurant in downtown Athens, owner Charalampos Bonatsos said rising taxes have forced him to lay off half his staff and cut his remaining workers’ wages. He said he still struggles to cope with the last three years’ increases in corporate income tax, property tax and sales tax.

Johnston Press is exploring options to restructure or refinance its debt, the British regional newspaper publisher said on Thursday in a statement issued after its shares more than doubled, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Top investor activist Custos Group is not in discussions with the company, however, after offering to help refinance it on Tuesday, CEO Christen Ager-Hanssen told Reuters. "I'm not in discussions with them -- not for the moment," Ager-Hanssen said.

Intu Properties' chief executive officer is stepping down as the British shopping centre operator swung to a loss and warned of lower rental income growth for the full year, sending its shares down 9 percent to a record low. Intu's update follows a failed 3.4 billion-pound takeover bid by rival Hammerson in April and a string of bankruptcies of retailers that has hit the company hard, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Having just two final bidders in the mix for €2.2 billion of non-performing loans (NPL) was probably not what Permanent TSB (PTSB) chief executive Jeremy Masding would have wanted. While any corporate financier would tell you that it’s best to have three parties in the final shake-out to keep everyone honest, PTSB has to make do with US private equity firm Lone Star and hedge fund Elliott Management submitting binding final bids by a deadline on Wednesday evening, The Irish Times reported.

Mario Draghi said on Thursday that uncertainty over the eurozone’s inflation outlook is “receding” following years of tepid price growth even while global protectionism poses a “prominent” risk, the Financial Times reported. The European Central Bank president’s remarks come after policymakers on Thursday held interest rates at historic lows and confirmed plans to end the bank’s vast bond-buying programme in December. Mr Draghi said the ECB noted that the “direct effects” of tariffs that have so for been implemented by the US on EU exports have been “limited”.