France and Germany’s “historic” agreement to establish a eurozone budget has run into immediate opposition from hawkish governments that are sceptical of plans to create a fiscal capacity for the single currency area, the Financial Times reported. Eurozone finance ministers are meeting in Luxembourg today for the first eurogroup gathering since a Franco-German deal this week on the next steps to reform monetary union. It includes a plan to develop a euro-area budget to help economies “converge” and boost investment during downturns.

The property market has fallen a little closer to Earth: prices dropped by 9% between September and January, largely because of a surfeit of pricey new flats. They then steadied, and are around 5% below the peak—and 50% higher than at the start of 2013, calculates Valueguard, a data provider. As Swedes have borrowed to buy, their debts have risen, The Economist reported. Finansinspektionen (FI), the financial-stability supervisor, estimates that borrowers’ debts rose by 36% between 2012 and 2017, while disposable incomes went up by 13%.

France‘s top central banker has said the European Central Bank cannot step in to offset slower growth or market turmoil should a serious trade war materialise or governments overspend, the Financial Times reported. François Villeroy de Galhau, governor of Banque de France, also “strongly“ welcomed the commitment made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and France’s president Emmanuel Macron earlier this week to reform the eurozone economy through more economic integration.  The ECB announced last Thursday that it planned to end its €2.4tn quantitative easing programme by the

The creditors of Croatia’s indebted food producer and retailer Agrokor will vote on a settlement deal on July 4, a local commercial court said on Thursday. For the deal to be approved, two-thirds of creditors must vote for it, which is widely expected, Reuters. The legal deadline for the vote, aimed at avoiding Agrokor’s bankruptcy, is July 10. Earlier this week the representatives of major creditors in the so-called interim creditors’ council have accepted the settlement contract, which includes a debt-to-equity swap and some loan write-offs..

Italian government bond prices and stocks fell sharply in value on Thursday after two staunchly Eurosceptic lawmakers from the far-right League were tapped to lead key Italian parliamentary committees that deal with economic policy, the Financial Times reported. The yield on two-year government bonds rose as much as 33 basis points to 0.912 per cent while the 10-year was up 16bp to 2.721 per cent as debt prices fell.

European Union banks should reduce the stock of bad loans to a maximum of 5 percent of the loans they hold, Germany and France said in a joint document, recommending a ceiling that would force Italy and other EU countries to hasten offloading plans, Reuters reported. The document, adopted before an EU summit scheduled for next week in Brussels, said that all European banks should aim at reducing their gross exposure to non-performing loans (NPLs) to a maximum ratio of 5 percent.

Altice Europe is selling its French and Portuguese tower businesses for a total of €2.5bn in cash, the telecoms and cable group said on Wednesday after market close, the Financial Times reported. The deal marks the latest asset disposal by Patrick Drahi’s Altice as the company moves to free up its balance sheet and reassure investors concerned about its debt pile and operational difficulties in its largest market of France. Earlier this month Altice spun off its US division from the European business as part of a restructuring that was announced in January.

Leaders of the world’s top central banks warned Wednesday that escalating trade conflicts could ricochet through financial markets and hurt the world economy, potentially prolonging the era of ultralow interest rates, The Wall Street Journal reported. Rising tensions over trade come at an awkward time for major central banks, which have started moving away from easy-money policies introduced since the global financial crisis.

As Greece prepares to emerge from one of the region’s most wrenching economic periods, its creditors are drawing up plans to ensure it is never a problem for the rest of Europe again, the International New York Times reported. European Union officials will unveil a blueprint in Brussels on Thursday to help the beleaguered country stand on its own once it comes off its third financial bailout in August. They have heralded Greece’s revival, and pointed to the closing of its bailout as a symbolic end to a ruinous financial crisis.

Non-performing loans held by Portuguese banks are declining at a substantial rate as the economy expands but remain “very high” by European standards, Moody’s said on Wednesday. The rating agency said the ratio of NPLs to gross lending fell to 15.2 per cent at the end of 2017, down from 19.5 per cent a year earlier, the Financial Times reported. The ratio had peaked at 20.1 per cent in 2016 in the wake of the eurozone debt crisis, which forced Portugal to seek an international bailout.