As Greece lurches toward climb-down or collision with its creditors, an exhausted population is bracing for more economic pain—either way, The Wall Street Journal reported. Panagiotis Koupalidis, a 68-year-old retiree, is supporting his wife as well as their three grown children, who lost their jobs in Greece’s depression, on a pension of €700 ($790) a month. That is just over half what it was before the austerity measures imposed by creditors as the condition for bailout loans. Now Mr.

Bakery chain Fornetti Romania, which has filed for insolvency in 2011, has fulfilled its obligations to the lenders, banks and partners included in the reorganization plan, according to its statement. The judicial administrators will propose closing the insolvency procedure in the next eight months, reports local Mediafax. The company estimates that it will increase its sales by 15% this year and will invest in modernize its stores. Last year, the bakery chain managed to stay on profit, and posted a EUR 22 million turnover. The company has 400 employees.

A 13 billion pound mortgage portfolio put up for sale by the "bad bank" charged with winding down the assets of two failed British lenders has lured interest from several possible bidders, the group's boss said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), which is selling off the loans of bailed-out Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, said in April it was selling the portfolio, named Granite, along with its mortgage servicing operations, aiming to speed up the repayment of taxpayers' money.

The euro zone's body for dealing with failing banks said on Tuesday it was in close contact with Greek regulators as the country's banks face tough times. "Greek banks are living in a challenging economic environment,", Elke Koenig, chairman of the Single Resolution Board (SRB), told the European Parliament. "But the promising part of that is they have a very engaged and very active resolution team. We are in close contact with our Greek colleagues," she added.

Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, vowed not to give in to demands made by his country’s international creditors, accusing them of “pillaging” Greece for the past five years and insisting it was now up to them to propose a new rescue plan to save Athens from bankruptcy, the Financial Times reported. Mr Tsipras’ remarks came less than 24 hours after the collapse of last-ditch talks aimed at reaching agreement on the release of €7.2bn in desperately needed rescue funds.

Since Iceland's banking system collapsed in late 2008, the small island state has served as a pioneering counter example to Europe's way of handling a debt crisis. When Icelandic banks, which had grown to 10 times the country's annual income, could no longer refinance their debt, Reykjavik did three things. It restructured the banks, letting creditors fight for the scraps while new banks continued to serve the local economy; it let the currency plummet; and it imposed foreign exchange controls, preventing foreigners from repatriating their investments en masse.

For years, central bankers have treated the fabled interest rate known as the “zero lower bound” as if it were a physical barrier. Like the notion that temperatures cannot fall below absolute zero, policy makers thought they could not impose negative borrowing costs, as depositors would simply withdraw their money and hoard the cash. However, as the risk of deflation has pushed central banks in the eurozone, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland to venture below zero, the question has shifted from whether negative rates are possible to how low they can go, the Financial Times reported.

Talks aimed at reaching an 11th-hour deal between Greek ministers and their bailout creditors collapsed on Sunday evening after a new economic reform proposal submitted by Athens was deemed inadequate to continue negotiations, the Financial Times reported. The breakdown is the clearest sign yet that differences between the two sides may be too wide to breach, increasing the possibility that Athens will not secure the €7.2bn in bailout aid it needs to avoid defaulting on its debts — including a €1.5bn loan repayment due to the International Monetary Fund in just two weeks.

Germany's finance ministry denied a report on Saturday that its officials were working on a plan to allow an orderly debt restructuring for any country that becomes insolvent, Reuters reported. German magazine Der Spiegel had reported that Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble asked officials to draft plans for a system of debt restructuring for any insolvent country so that it could stay in the euro. Greece is negotiating for loans in exchange for reforms so that it can repay debts due in the coming weeks and avoid default.

Leading German industrialists have sounded the alarm over the European Central Bank’s move to drive down interest rates, warning that cheap money is causing volatility and could create “another bubble”, the Financial Times reported. Wolfgang Buechele, chief executive of Linde, the industrial gas and plant engineering group, told the Financial Times: “You hear from national bankers and the ECB that we have to focus in the future on managing bubbles.