Budget deficits for the 19 euro-area governments fell to an eight-year low in the first quarter as the pace of economic growth accelerated, Bloomberg News reported today. The euro area’s seasonally-adjusted budgetary shortfall fell to 1.6 percent of output compared with 2.2 percent in the same period a year ago, the European Union’s statistics agency said in a release published Friday. That is the narrowest shortfall since the first quarter of 2008.

New and increased government insolvency fees introduced yesterday will undermine the UK insolvency regime and cost creditors £8m per year, R3 has warned, according to Accountancy Age today. By threatening creditor returns, the government could undermine the UK’s World Bank insolvency ranking, the insolvency trade body said. Among other new fees, the government is introducing a fee of £6,000 in every compulsory liquidation or bankruptcy, even when the case is handled by a private sector insolvency practitioner rather than the government’s official receiver.

As worries that the European Central Bank will soon run out of sovereign debt to buy for its quantitative-easing program persist, Europe's over-leveraged governments are declining to lend a hand, Bloomberg News reported today. According to a study by JPMorgan Chase & Co., net issuance of new debt this year will fall well short of the ECB's appetite, which runs at a monthly clip of 80 billion euros ($88 billion). While that's just a drop in the ocean compared with the total "eligible universe," the data illustrate the speed with which the central bank is eating up the market.

Terrorism, air-traffic-control strikes and Brexit have caused a sequence of shocks that have hit demand causing European airlines have been forced to slash ticket prices to fill planes, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Earnings expectations have been scaled back. “You have more terrorist events this year than in any year that anyone can remember,” said Carolyn McCall, chief executive of budget airline easyJet PLC.

The English Court has recently considered who can be recognized as “foreign representatives” under the Cross-Border Insolvency Regulations 2006 (CBIR) in the case of Re 19 Entertainment Limited, about a US company in chapter 11, the National Law Review reported yesterday.

The International Monetary Fund downgraded its forecast for global economic growth as Britain’s surprise vote to leave the European Union last month weighs on consumer confidence and investor sentiment, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The IMF notched down its global growth estimate for this year and next by 0.1 percentage point, putting 2016 at 3.1 percent and on par with last year’s pace, the slowest since the financial crisis. The fund expects a mild pickup next year to 3.4 percent annual growth.

The European Union’s highest court ruled that Slovenia broke no laws when it imposed so-called “burden-sharing” in the 2013 banking rescue that wiped out about 600 million euros ($664 million) of bondholder debt, Bloomberg News reported today. The ruling may lend support to the euro member’s central bank, led by Governor Bostjan Jazbec, after it was raided by Slovenian police earlier this month on suspicion of wrongdoing during the bank rescue.

The last overhaul of the pension system walloped Poland’s stock market, but the former banker charged with overseeing a new revamp says he is confident he can avoid a repeat, Bloomberg News reported today. “One of our aims is to strengthen the Polish capital market and make the bourse more attractive for companies seeking debuts,” Pawel Borys, who heads the state-run Polish Development Fund, said last week.

Moody’s Investors Service warned of a 62 percent rise in the deficit of the Bank of Ireland’s defined benefit funds, partly due to the outcome of the Brexit vote, is credit negative for the bank, Pensions & Investments reported yesterday. In a credit outlook note yesterday, Moody’s analysts cited a larger pension fund deficit, which hit €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) as of June 30, up from €740 million as of Dec.

The Czech corruption police investigate the financial management of the OKD black-coal mining company, which was declared insolvent in May and has debts worth billions of crowns, the Czech News Agency has found in the insolvency register. Detectives from the Squad for Uncovering Organised Crime (UOOZ) are looking into suspicious transactions of OKD and the owner of the NWR Holdings B.V., which owns OKD. The police have asked for documentation on OKD financial management, according to OKD insolvency administrator Leo Louda.