The European Union's head office says Greece is delivering on its fiscal targets and that an agreement to hand more bailout cash to Athens could come next month, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. EU Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said Wednesday that Greece continues to show progress on its budget targets and held out hope of an agreement between Greece and its bailout creditors from the 19-country eurozone and the International Monetary Fund soon.

French carmaker PSA Group said its first-quarter revenue rose 4.9 percent, as the first results of a new product offensive helped to overcome negative currency effects, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Revenue advanced to 13.63 billion euros (£11.62 billion) from 13 billion a year earlier, the maker of Peugeot, Citroen and DS cars said on Wednesday. At its core automotive division, revenue rose a more modest 2.5 percent to 9.02 billion euros.

The board of Alitalia has convened a shareholder meeting for April 27 to discuss the company’s future – including placing the Italian airline into administration – after workers rejected a rescue deal in a vote on Monday, the Financial Times reported. In a statement on Tuesday, Alitalia directors said they had noted the outcome of the referendum with “regret”, since it made a planned €2bn recapitalisation of the country’s flag carrier “impossible”.

Europe’s emergency bailout fund sold a record amount of long-dated bonds on Tuesday, in the latest sign of investor enthusiasm following the first round of voting in France’s presidential election, the Financial Times reported. The European Financial Stability Facility raised €6bn in a new 10-year issue, and a further €2bn by reopening an existing 2043 maturity bond, with both parts of the fundraising more than twice oversubscribed, bankers said.

The recent economic data out of the euro zone is encouraging. Production, manufacturing and confidence are robust, and inflation has stabilized, a Bloomberg View reported. That’s not to say that there aren’t risks to the downside, such as growing populism, global geopolitical tensions, and uncertainty about sustainability of the economic recovery. To insure against these risks, the European Central Bank, which has a monetary policy meeting Thursday, has the option of boosting asset purchases.

Russia's largest bank Sberbank is considering selling 1.1 billion euros (920.1 million pounds) in loans it granted to indebted Croatian food and retail group Agrokor, Sberbank's First Deputy Chairman Maxim Poletayev said, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. "We are also considering a possibility of selling Agrokor's debt and are in talks with buyers on the international markets," Poletayev said in an interview with Reuters.

Alitalia, Italy’s flag carrier, has been plunged into chaos after its workers rebelled against a deal struck ten days ago by management and trade unions to save the airline from collapse by cutting wages and laying off employees, the Financial Times reported. The vote against the agreement jeopardises a key round of financing that had been planned to keep Alitalia solvent, meaning the airline now faces possible receivership, liquidation and a grounding of its fleet.

With ‘Frexit’ looking like it is off the cards, investors attuned to political risk in the eurozone are turning their attentions back on Italy. Italian assets are enjoying a bounce today, caught up in the broader market euphoria over Emmanuel Macron’s likely ascendancy to the French presidency in less than two weeks’ time, the Financial Times reported.

France’s big banks were the biggest beneficiaries of the country’s first round of voting in the race for the Elysée Palace on Monday with their share prices eclipsing a robust performance from the blue-chip CAC 40 index, the Financial Times reported. Shares in BNP Paribas gained 7.4 per cent while Société Générale rose 10.1 per cent and Crédit Agricole added 10.3 per cent — surpassing the CAC 40’s jump of 4.1 per cent.

As the International Monetary Fund approaches the seventh anniversary of the contentious Greek bailout, it is torn over whether to commit new loans to a nearly bankrupt Greece, the International New York Times reported. For more than a year, I.M.F. officials have been saying — loudly — that they cannot participate in a new rescue package for Greece unless Europe agrees to ease Greece’s onerous debt burden. The fund’s reluctance to commit additional money to Greece also highlights a widely held view among I.M.F.