The eurozone’s construction sector suffered its biggest monthly contraction since 2013 in January – the second consecutive month of declines, the Financial Times reported. Output dropped by 2.3 per cent in January from December, and it was 6.2 per cent lower compared to January 2016, according to figures from Eurostat. The biggest monthly drops were recorded in Slovenia (-12.3 per cent), Belgium (-4.6 per cent) and Spain (-3.8 per cent) and could dampen expectations of a strong start to growth in the single currency area in the first quarter of 2017.

There could be a light at the end of the tunnel for European lenders waiting to issue billions in loss-absorbing debt as rulemakers ramp up the pressure to accelerate the requisite legislation. The European Commission endorsed a new form of senior unsecured debt in November 2016 in an attempt to harmonise the increasingly fragmented European bank debt market, the result of diverging national approaches to meeting post-crisis regulation, Reuters reported.

The number of owner-occupier mortgages at least three months in arrears fell 3.7 per cent during the final three months of 2016, marking the 13th consecutive quarterly decline, as the economy continued to improve and banks restructured their soured loans, the Irish Times reported. Some 54,269 home loans, or 7.4 per cent of a total of 736,894 Irish mortgages, valued at €100 billion, remained at least 90 days behind in repayments at the end of December, the Central Bank said on Thursday. The rate fell from 7.6 per cent from the previous quarter.

A major Spanish energy provider is fighting the Colombian government’s seizure of its assets on the country’s Caribbean coast, threatening to take South America’s third-largest economy to international arbitration, the Financial Times reported. Colombia’s services regulator said it has ordered the liquidation of power supplier Electricaribe, an affiliate of Spain’s Gas Natural, due to a lack of quality, solvency and investment.

Portugal's Caixa Geral de Depositos will meet investors from next Monday ahead of a planned Additional Tier 1 transaction, part of a package designed to nurse the state-rescued lender back to health, Reuters reported. Caixa Geral de Depositos confirmed to IFR last month that it had mandated banks for a deal, also the first AT1 trade out of Portugal. On Thursday it announced investor meetings starting Monday March 20 via Barclays, Caixa - Banco de Investimento, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan ahead of a €500m no-grow perpetual non-call five.

Private-equity backed French clothing retailer Vivarte, in talks to restructure more than 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) of debt, has sealed a deal with its lenders, chairman and chief executive Patrick Puy told French newspaper Les Echos, Reuters reported. Vivarte, which has put up several of its brands for sale under the restructuring, could announce the sale of its Pataugas shoe brand to a private investor within two weeks, he added. The debt restructuring plan, which was agreed by all of the retailer's 172 creditors, calls for the conversion of 846 million euros of debt into equity.

Shares in Eurozone banks have finally recovered the losses suffered in the global sell-off that hit markets at the start of last year, with a key index of the sector hitting its highest level since the end of 2015, the Financial Times reported. Bank stocks were hit hard last year, initially prompted by fears fears of an economic shock in China. Political shocks including the Brexit vote as well as structural problems in countries including Italy and Germany hampered its recovery, but the shares have rallied strongly since Donald Trump’s US election victory.

Ukraine's largest steelmaker, Metinvest said on Wednesday steel and coke assets in territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists had been seized by rebels, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. "Metinvest does not expect any such seizure to have a negative effect on the implementation of its debt restructuring," the company said in a statement. Metinvest's bond holders and banks agreed a restructuring last month. Metinvest is part of the business empire of Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov.

They don’t call it the Schatz for nothing. The term — market parlance for German two-year debt — means ‘darling’ in its native language. Little wonder, then, that this pocket of the eurozone government bond markets has become the centre of an intense love affair. Having fallen as low as minus 0.95 per cent in February, yields on the beloved debt now stand at a still eye-popping minus 0.84 per cent, the Financial Times reported. Buyers are clearly willing to wear a substantial nominal loss on this cherished asset.

European Union banks may face increasing risks from bad loans totalling 1 trillion euros (902.8 billion pounds) when the European Central Bank cuts back its economic stimulus programme, internal EU documents seen by Reuters said. Banks have been saddled with more so-called non-performing loans (NPLs) following the 2008 global financial crisis, as companies and households have struggled to pay their debts, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. This in turn has crimped their ability to make new loans.