The Moldovan government says loss-making national airline Air Moldova has been sold to a Romanian group for 1.2 billion Moldovan lei ($71 million). The Public Property Agency said Tuesday that Civil Aviation Group paid 50 million lei ($2.96 million) to Moldova's state budget, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. The remaining money from the purchase will go toward covering debts that were sold to prevent the airline's bankruptcy. Air Moldova was founded in 1983 and has flights to 33 destinations.

Greece wants to repay loans owed to its lenders from the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund before they are due in a bid to cut its debt servicing costs, its finance minister said on Tuesday. Greece, whose public debt amounts to 180 percent of its gross domestic product, has received loans totalling about 280 billion euros under three international bailouts since 2010, Reuters reported. The ECB holds about 12 billion euros worth of Greek debt with an average maturity of four years and the IMF about 10 billion euros with an average maturity of three years.

Sean Dunne’s Irish bankruptcy has been extended by 12 years by the High Court over “wilful and deliberate” failure to co-operate with the trustee administering his bankruptcy, including hiding or not disclosing information about certain assets, The Irish Times reported. Ms Justice Caroline Costello also ruled that Mr Dunne must pay €7,000 monthly to his Irish bankruptcy trustee to increase the assets available for his creditors.

French carmaker PSA Group is open to new industry tie-ups and is attracting attention from competitors after its lightning turnaround and swift progress in restructuring recently acquired Opel, Chief Executive Carlos Tavares said. The maker of Peugeot cars, which came close to bankruptcy in 2013-14, has rebounded under Tavares to record levels of profitability, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

The latest collision between Italy’s markets and politics is beginning to fuel concern that shock waves could spread to elsewhere in Europe. As Italian bond yields touched a four-year high, the euro extended losses and the region’s equities slumped, while haven assets such as German bunds and the Swiss franc rallied, Bloomberg News reported. Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Primera Air, a low-cost carrier, has ceased operations and announced it will close as of October 2 after it failed to secure financing, the Financial Times reported. In an announcement on its website, the Latvian-based airline said: “On behalf of Primera Air team, we would like to thank you for your loyalty. On this sad day we are saying goodbye to all of you.” The airline flew nine Boeing aircraft from bases in countries including Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. It offered transatlantic flights from Birmingham and Stansted airports in the UK.

The Greek government is urging bailout inspectors to drop their insistence that it cuts pension further next year, arguing the country is on target to beat budget targets without doing so, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. In its draft 2019 budget, tabled to parliament Monday, the government said Greece's economy will grow 2.5 percent next year, with debt and unemployment steadily falling too. In the 44-page document , it said the issue of pension cuts would be decided later this year.

German retail sales unexpectedly slipped in August, marking the second disappointing reading in a row for the country’s retail trade and fuelling concerns over growth in Europe’s biggest economy, the Financial Times reported. Retail sales fell by 0.1. per cent in August compared to the previous month, according to data published by Germany’s Federal Statistics Office. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a 0.4 per cent rise. However, on an year on year basis, turnover in Germany’s retail trade increased by 1.6 per cent, above analyst expectations of 1.5 per cent.

Finance ministers from the eurozone’s largest economies have urged Italy’s populist government to respect the bloc’s spending rules, as they pushed Rome for clarity on its plans to tear up a previous budget agreement with Brussels, the Financial Times reported. Eurozone finance ministers on Monday met for the first time since Italy’s populist coalition last week presented a spending plan that would inflate Italy’s budget deficit to an estimated 2.4 per cent over the next three years.

The City is bracing itself for an uncertain six months in the run-up to the UK’s departure from the European Union, the Financial Times reported. Operators of the crucial market infrastructure that ensures that money flows around the world — from exchanges, and fixed income markets to clearing and settlement houses — are activating their plans for life outside the EU. Some of London’s biggest markets operators, such as TP ICAP, Thomson Reuters, Cboe Europe and Turquoise are setting up hubs in Europe, centred on Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin.