As the European Central Bank deploys its most powerful economic weapon, the onus for growth now lies with the 19 individual countries in the euro currency union, a fractious and highly political group, the International New York Times reported. The central bank’s plan calls for buying 60 billion euros, or about $69 billion, of government bonds and other debt each month. It is the kind of aggressive action that leaders in weaker eurozone countries have long wanted and that Germany has tried to block.

Ireland has the fourth highest government debt to GDP ratio in the European Union, despite recording the largest drop in debt from the third quarter of 2013 to the end of the same quarter last year, the Irish Times reported. New figures published by the EU statistics office Eurostat show Irish debt now stands at 114.8 per cent, having fallen by 9.4 per cent from 124.2 per cent over the period under review. With a government debt to GDP ratio of 176 per cent, Greece has the highest debt among Member States.

The co-founder of Russian-owned broker Alpari applied a year ago to wind up the parent company of its retail FX brokerage Alpari UK, fearing long before the company's collapse from trading losses last week that it "was doomed". Andrey Dashin, whose website lists him as "the Chairman of the Board of Directors and co-owner of the Alpari brand", said he lodged a winding-up petition for Alpari UK parent company Alpari Group Limited with a Cypriot court on Jan. 28, 2014.

Ukraine’s finance minister said Wednesday the government hopes to start debt negotiations with creditors next month after it completes a deal on an expanded emergency-loan package with the International Monetary Fund, The Wall Street Journal reported. “Once we’ve come to an agreement with the IMF on the program, we will invite our sovereign creditors to consult with us on how we can work together to improve the medium term debt sustainability of the country,” Ukraine Finance Minister Natalia Jaresko said in an interview.

The European Central Bank’s executive board proposed buying roughly €50 billion ($58 billion) a month in bonds for at least a year, according to people familiar with the matter, but markets largely shrugged as investors pondered whether the ECB will do enough to stoke Europe’s fragile economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. The board’s proposal for the bond-purchase program, known as quantitative easing or QE, forms the basis of deliberations by the entire 25-member governing council on Thursday on whether to embark on a path already forged by the U.S. and the U.K.

The National Asset Management Agency made a loss of €292.9 million on the disposal of various debtor loans in the first nine months of last year, according to its latest set of unaudited accounts, the Irish Times reported. It is understood that this relates to the sale of a large portfolio of assets in Northern Ireland last year, which resulted in a loss being booked. However, the State agency made a profit of €150 million on the sale of property assets to leave it with a net loss on disposals in the nine months to the end of September 2014 of €143 million.

Ukraine isn’t planning to restructure its debt and is working with the International Monetary Fund on a “sustainable program” to fight a recession and sinking foreign reserves, the nation’s acting deputy central bank head said, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. “We are a good a borrower and we want to follow the credit history of Ukraine and therefore this discussion on restructuring is not on the table now,” Vladyslav Rashkovan said Tuesday in an interview in Vienna. Debt restructuring is “absolutely,” he said.

Demand for mortgage loans increased in the final quarter of last year ahead of expected new stricter lending rules, the Irish Times reported. According to the Central Bank bank’s latest quarterly lending survey, the potential introduction of stricter loan-to-value criteria resulted in “an acceleration of demand”. However, the survey, which examines credit market conditions for households and businesses, the strength of the reported increase in demand was lower than the record level reported in the third quarter.

Spain’s residential real-estate recovery is a tale of two cities: Madrid and Barcelona, The Wall Street Journal reported. Barcelona is the only city in Spain to post an annual increase in home prices during 2014. Prices in the city rose 2.8%, with some neighborhoods gaining as much as 8%. Madrid, too, has fared better than most. While it hasn’t enjoyed price gains, Madrid’s decline of 4.9% last year was better than the 5.7% drop for Spain overall, according to fotocasa.es, a Spanish property website.

Irish development and investment group Ardale Property has completed its acquisition of Weslin Construction, which was in examinership. The €500,000 deal will save 15 jobs and position Ardale across a number of sectors, the Irish Times reported. Alan Hegarty, of Ardale Property Group, said that the investment “was an easy one”. “We would not have made this investment unless we felt we could bring Weslin forward.