Euro-area growth data this week may show the region’s nascent recovery slowing to a crawl, supporting Mario Draghi’s case for an interest-rate cut to help the economy get back to its feet. Gross domestic product in the region rose just 0.1 percent in the third quarter, according to the median forecast of 41 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. In the 3 1/2 hours before that report on Nov. 14, economists predict a series of data releases to show growth slowing in Germany and stalling in France, with Italy remaining mired in an unprecedented slump.

The Central Bank believes it is powerless to sanction the directors and managers of Newbridge Credit Union (NCU) for a litany of alleged rules breaches that were outlined by the regulator in court documents last week, the Irish Times reported. NCU got a €54 million taxpayer bailout over the weekend to facilitate a High Court-sanctioned takeover of the credit union by Permanent TSB. The regulator only gained the power to sanction credit union directors for regulatory breaches from August 1st this year, under the Credit Union and Co-operation with Overseas Regulators Act.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said the Government will decide before the end of the bailout in mid-December whether it will seek a special credit line to guard against renewed turmoil after the rescue programme, the Irish Times reported. Mr Noonan was speaking alongside Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin this morning as the EU-IMF said Ireland had successfully executed all obligations on it under the three-year bailout, a key step in the process of leaving the programme next month.

The European Central Bank cut interest rates to a record low on Thursday and said it could take them lower still to prevent the euro zone's recovery from stalling as inflation tumbles. The move took financial markets by surprise - the euro fell sharply in response while European shares rose. Underlining its support for the euro zone, the ECB said it would prime banks with as much liquidity as required until mid-2015. A Reuters poll of economists also saw the ECB offering banks a new round of cheap money within six months.

Russia's mining giant Norilsk Nickel has no plans to help bail out financially-troubled Finnish nickel miner Talvivaara, a source familiar with the Russian company's plans said, Reuters reported. Talvivaara said earlier on Thursday it was in talks with stakeholders to secure funds after a series of production disruptions at its Sotkamo mine and a fall in nickel prices put it at risk of bankruptcy. Norilsk Nickel, the world's biggest nickel and palladium producer, is Talvivaara's main customer and owns a 0.64 percent stake in the company.

It was a reality check that many in Spain always knew was coming. For more than two weeks, the country woke up almost daily to brightening economic news: first came the widely-hailed return to economic growth, then a flurry of data showing that the labour market is stabilising, the Financial Times reported. Even Microsoft founder Bill Gates seemed keen to buy into the Spanish comeback, snapping up a 6 per cent stake in one of the country’s biggest construction groups.

Public services ground to a halt across Greece on Wednesday as the country's two largest labor unions called a nationwide general strike to protest the government's ongoing austerity program and as international inspectors arrived in Athens to review Greece's reform program, The Wall Street Journal reported. Central and local government offices were shut by the strike, schools and courts closed, while public hospitals were operating on skeleton staff.

Spanish appliance maker Fagor Electrodomésticos on Wednesday edged toward a possible bankruptcy filing after its French unit said it was seeking protection from creditors, The Wall Street Journal reported. Fagor, Europe's fifth-largest maker of household appliances such as washing machines and stoves, was hit hard by the region's economic crisis and has been scrambling to secure financing to continue operations. The white-goods maker is the flagship industrial member of the Mondragón network of self-managed cooperatives—the largest of its type in the world.

Lawyers for State-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, pleaded for protection from a US bankruptcy court saying that the liquidated bank was a “very unique” case, the Irish Times reported. The Delaware bankruptcy court heard the bank’s case for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection, guarding about €1 billion of US assets and blocking legal actions against it, at a hearing yesterday.

Italy’s appointment of a former senior IMF official as the government’s new spending tsar has already added to the budget deficit – his annual salary of €300,000 is the maximum allowed for a civil servant.