Household energy bills are on course to jump by £209 a year from July as the Iran war pushes up the price of oil and gas, The Telegraph reported. Cornwall Insight, the energy consultancy, said it expects the Ofgem price cap to rise by 13pc from £1,641 to £1,850 a year even as warmer summer weather arrives. The rise in the cap – which limits the average annual energy bill faced by a family home – is worse than earlier predictions by analysts that prices would jump by £196.

Rachel Reeves is urging supermarkets to cap food prices in an attempt to limit inflation unleashed by the Iran war, The Telegraph reported. The Chancellor has asked grocers to cap how much they charge shoppers for staple items such as bread, eggs and milk, in return for relaxing some red tape.

The number of people going financially insolvent across England and Wales jumped by 7% annually in April, according to Insolvency Service figures, PAMedia.com reported. Some 10,920 people entered insolvency in April 2026, which was 7% higher than in April 2025 but 10% lower than in March this year. The personal insolvency total for April this year was made up of 701 bankruptcies, 4,033 debt relief orders (DROs) and 6,186 individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs). The Insolvency Service said that DRO numbers in April were 9% lower than a record high of 4,419 seen in March this year.

Online scammers are exploiting the bankruptcy of Dutch home goods retailer Fonq in a coordinated fraud campaign that also echoes earlier schemes that followed the collapses of Casa and Blokker, according to Dutch authorities and consumer fraud monitors, NLTimes.nl reported. The Fraud Helpdesk confirmed it has received initial reports about fraudulent advertisements circulating on TikTok and Instagram that lure bargain hunters with promises of up to 90 percent discounts. The ads direct users to a fake website posing as an official Fonq liquidation store, AD reports.

Perfecta continues to grow after several months of insolvency proceedings . Solvesta Beteiligungs takes over the assets of the German guillotine and cutting systems factory. The takeover preserves the know-how of the historic manufacturer and 60 jobs, PrintingIndustry.news reported. Founded in 1896, Perfecta, part of the Baumann Group, produces cutters and cutting lines for the commercial, packaging, digital printing and label sectors. The manufacturer also supplies associated automation and handling systems, and markets its equipment in over 70 countries.

The eurozone’s seasonally adjusted trade surplus narrowed in March compared with the prior month, likely reflecting an increase in the cost of imported energy as the conflict in the Middle East disrupted supplies, the Wall Street Journal reported. The seasonally adjusted trade balance was 3.5 billion euros ($4.08 billion) in March, down from 6.5 billion euros in February, statistics agency Eurostat said Tuesday. On a non-adjusted basis, international trade in goods surplus fell to 7.8 billion euros in March, down from 11.1 billion euros in February.

Switzerland’s economy continued to grow in the first quarter of 2026, but the war in Iran threatens to derail the country’s recovery in the coming months, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gross domestic product expanded 0.5% in the three months through March, furthering the 0.2% expansion during the final quarter of 2025, Switzerland’s statistics office said Monday. “Both the industrial and services sectors contributed to this growth,” the statistics office said. But the Middle East conflict is clouding the outlook for the Swiss economy.

The U.K.’s unemployment rate picked up in the three months through March, with further rises expected in the coming months as the Iran war continues to weigh on the economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. The unemployment rate was 5.0% compared with 4.9% in the three months through February, the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics said Tuesday. The slight rise in unemployment matched a consensus of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal as higher energy costs—driven by the conflict in the Middle East—begin to drag on hiring and increase the risk of job cuts.

Russian company Monocrystal, which was one of the world's leading producers of synthetic sapphires used in the production of missiles and drones among other applications, is declaring bankruptcy, The Moscow Times reported. The manufacturer, which is part of the Energomera concern, notified creditors of its intention to file for bankruptcy with the Arbitration Court of Russia's Stavropol Krai.