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.

Italy’s new populist leaders appear to be sticking to the program that brought them to power: In their budget plans, they’re charting a course that could ultimately put the entire European project at risk, a Bloomberg View reported. One can only hope that they will see reason. Since forming a government last spring, the coalition of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and right-wing League has kept everyone guessing about its genuine intentions. Its leaders made expensive promises to Italians, including big tax cuts, a lower retirement age, and even a basic income.

As investors scrambled for more clarity on the Italian budget plan that roiled its markets on Friday, at least one thing was clear: Ten years after the financial crisis, the sovereign-bank “doom loop” still haunts Europe, Bloomberg News reported. A selloff that started in government bonds quickly spread to the debt and shares of the country’s lenders as investors latched onto a problem policy makers have been unable to resolve in that decade -- the potentially vicious cycle between over-indebted governments and the weak banks that funded them.

Pessimism in France and Spain dragged down economic sentiment across the eurozone, according to official statistics published on Thursday, as a drop in confidence among consumers and industry outweighed a more optimistic outlook from the retail trade and construction sector, the Financial Times reported. The economic sentiment indicator fell 0.7 points to 110.9 in September, flash data from the European Commission showed. Economists polled by Thomson Ruters had expected a shallower drop, to 111.2.

Italian bonds and stocks fell along with the euro as investor fears over the country’s 2019 budget were reawakened by last-minute friction among political leaders, Bloomberg News reported. The nation’s benchmark stock index tumbled the most in more than a month following newspaper reports that the Five Star Movement and the League were pushing for extra spending and that budget targets due Thursday could be delayed. Still, demand for Italian debt at an auction of five- and 10-year notes stayed resilient.

Russian potash producer Uralkali announced legal action against the administrators of the Force India Formula One team on Thursday after having a bid rejected in what it called a “flawed sale process,” Reuters reported. The company said in a statement it was seeking substantial damages in the London High Court for “prejudicial and unequal treatment”. Joint administrators Geoff Rowley and Jason Baker, for FRP Advisory LLP, said they were confident the claim would be dismissed “at the earliest opportunity”.

French consumers are becoming increasingly nervous. A closely watched indicator of consumer confidence dropped again in September and remains below its historical average, as citizens worried their financial stability and standard of living would decline over the coming year, the Financial Times reported. Households’ confidence in the economic situation declined by two points to 94, below analyst expectations of 97 according to a Thomson Reuters poll and its lowest level since April 2016, data released on Wednesday by Insee showed.

Europe’s banking watchdog has backed a recommendation by the Maltese financial regulator to withdraw Pilatus Bank’s banking license following the indictment of its chairman for money laundering, Reuters reported. EBA’s move puts pressure on the European Central Bank which is expected to make a decision on whether to withdraw Pilatus’s license as early as this week. A spokesman for the ECB declined to comment. In a letter, dated Sept.

Alitalia returned to a net profit of 2 million euros ($2.35 million) in the third quarter, Stefano Paleari, one of the commissioners managing the airline, said on Wednesday in a sign that the fortunes of the airline were slowly improving, Reuters reported. Once a symbol of Italy’s post-war economic boom but recently in trouble due to low-cost carriers and high speed trains, Alitalia was put under special administration last year after workers rejected its latest rescue plan.