The jobs recovery stalled in July, as the the rate of unemployment remained unchanged at 9.7 per cent, while youth unemployment rose slightly during the month, up to 20.2 per cent, the Irish Times reported. According to figures from the Central Statistics Office released on Wednesday, the unemployment rate was unchanged in July, with some 208,900 people without a job, up by 300 on June, but down by 32,400 on July 2014. At 9.7 per cent, this is the lowest rate since January 2009 but is the third consecutive month of no change in the unemployment rate.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Wednesday that Greece was close to concluding a deal with lenders on a multi-billion-euro bailout, which he said would end doubts over its place in the euro zone, Reuters reported. The comments were the latest in a series of unusually upbeat assessments by Greek and European officials of progress in talks towards up to 86 billion euros ($93.6 billion) in fresh loans to stave off the country's financial ruin and economic collapse. "We are in the final stretch," Tsipras said.

The United States on Wednesday raised pressure on Ukraine's creditors to strike a deal to restructure the government's debts, with a top U.S. official saying Ukraine's debt burden is "unsustainable". "We urge these creditors to move swiftly in the coming weeks to reach an agreement with the Ukrainian authorities," Nathan Sheets, the Treasury's top official for international affairs, said in an op ed commentary published on broadcaster CNBC's website. Read more.

Spain emerged as the best performer of the eurozone’s big four economies last month as the single currency area largely shrugged off the impact of the Greek debt crisis, The Guardian reported. The latest health check conducted by the information services company Markit showed the pace of activity across the eurozone eased only slightly during the weeks when Greek banks were closed for business. But the survey found no signs that the eurozone was about to slide back into recession and, with Spain leading the way, was consistent with growth continuing at about 0.4% per quarter.

State-owned train operator Irish Rail (Iarnród Éireann) is likely to face bankruptcy if it loses the right to run services as a result of proposed changes to the way the EU rail sector is run, the Government has warned, the Irish Times reported. Iarnród Éireann’s contract for operating train services is due to expire in 2019 and the EU Commission has been pressing for changes which would see the sector opened up to tenders from competitors.

After the Greek government imposed capital controls to prevent the country’s banks from collapsing, businessman Athanassios Savvakis feared exports of apricots, peaches and tomatoes would be the country’s next economic casualty, the Financial Times reported. “I was seriously worried,” said the chief executive of National Can Hellas, a private company that makes 300m cans a year for local fruit and vegetable processors.

Ukraine’s bailout faces “significant uncertainty” even if the government is able to secure a debt-restructuring deal, the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday. The IMF’s comments, made in a report on the fund’s bailout program for Ukraine, come as the finance ministry in Kiev signaled it expected to reach a debt-relief deal this week with creditors, The Wall Street Journal reported.

They call it the “precariat”. In a continent known for strong employee protections, more than half of the eurozone’s young workers are in temporary jobs, churning from one shortlived contract to the next, the Financial Times reported. In France, permanent jobs account for just 16 per cent of new contracts, down from a quarter in 2000. In Spain, almost seven in 10 young workers are on temporary contracts. The share of the eurozone’s 15 to 24-year-old workers who are temps is the highest on record, at 52.4 per cent.

Investors issued a vote of no confidence in Greece’s economy on Monday, dumping stocks as trading on the Athens exchange resumed for the first time in five weeks, the International New York Times reported. A plunge of more than 16 percent for the main Greek index and a 30 percent sell-off for bank stocks were the latest signs of Greece’s shattered economy. But the resumption of trading was a necessary step as Greece tries to emerge from controls on financial activity that the government, confronted with a bank run, imposed at the end of June.

Bondholders of Ukraine’s third-biggest bank voted in favor of changing terms on $1.3 billion of debt as negotiations continue on restructuring a further $19 billion of sovereign securities, Bloomberg News reported. Creditors of the State Savings Bank of Ukraine, known as AT Oschadbank, agreed to push back maturity dates by seven years and increase coupons on two bonds and a subordinated loan, Chief Executive Officer Andriy Pyshnyi told reporters in Kiev on Monday. More than 90 percent of bondholders were in favor of the new terms.