Britain's beleaguered homeowners will have to wait until 2014 at least before they see a rise in the value of their properties, as weak demand and tight lending conditions keep the market in check, a Reuters poll found on Tuesday. Home prices, which have dropped about a fifth since their peak five years ago, will fall another 1.6 percent this year and only hold steady in 2013, according to the poll of more than 20 market watchers taken in the past few days. Housing has long been a bedrock of consumer wealth in Britain and average prices tripled during a property boom in the 10 years to 2007.

Indebted Russian coking coal and steel producer Mechel faces the risk of a further increase in already-stretched borrowings due to the financial struggles of subsidiary Estar, which owes it nearly $1 billion, Reuters reported. If Estar defaults on the loan - which falls due at the end of September - some analysts believe it could lead to renewed pressure on Mechel's debt covenants, less than six months after they were renegotiated for the second time in as many years. "If the loan is not repaid we will enforce the security, which is the pledge of shares of essentially all Estar assets ...

Several emerging-market countries Monday detailed their plans to boost the International Monetary Fund's coffers by more than $90 billion, to push the total new commitments to about $456 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported. China is pledging $43 billion, while India, Russia, Brazil and Mexico told Group of 20 officials they would commit around $10 billion each. Turkey committed $5 billion, and a handful of others offered about $1 billion.

Romanian state-owned power producer Hidroelectrica has filed for insolvency after a drought cut its sales and led to losses, but it will respect all contracts, the company said on Monday, Reuters reported. A drought in late 2011 has continued into this year and reduced its sales by 10 percent, the company said. After losses of 121 million lei ($34.1 million) in 2011 and 112 million lei in the first five months of 2012, its board decided to file for insolvency. Hidroelectrica, with installed capacity of 6,400 megawatts, is Romania's cheapest power producer.

Greece appears headed for a new clash with Germany over its rigid bailout program as the winners of Sunday's Greek election prepare to ask Europe for more time to cut public spending, The Wall Street Journal reported. Greece's conservative New Democracy party and its likely Socialist coalition partner, known as Pasok, are working on a proposal to ask other euro-zone countries for an extra two years to meet Greece's fiscal targets, officials involved in the preparations said.

A push by EU leaders to create a single supervisor for Europe’s largest banks is gaining momentum as support builds for giving the European Central Bank oversight powers in a big step toward “banking union”, the Financial Times reported. The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Austria are willing to back a powerful supranational supervisor, and a decision to relinquish national control over cross-border banks is being prepared for next week’s EU summit, according to senior officials. One said the new-found political impetus was “astonishing”.

The brief afterglow from Greece's vote Sunday to try to remain in the euro was quickly extinguished by a cascade of bad news out of Spain that again rattled faith in the currency bloc's ability to support its most troubled members, The Wall Street Journal reported. Fresh data from Spain's central bank showed the country's lenders were sitting on the highest level of bad loans in 18 years and that their deposits continued to leak away.

Russia is setting aside up to $40bn for this year and next to shore up the economy in case the crisis in the eurozone escalates and spreads, and is dusting off a plan that would allow the government to recapitalise the country’s banking system, the Financial Times reported. In his first interview with a foreign newspaper since his appointment as finance minister last year, Anton Siluanov said the government had agreed to create a reserve mechanism worth Rbs500bn ($15.4bn) for next year “for the direct financing of anti-crisis measures”.

Creditors of Ssangyong Engineering & Construction (E&C) have decided to relinquish a controlling stake in the company by means of a private contract after open bids failed to achieve this end, The Korea Times reported. A German engineering firm, which took part in three previous bids, has emerged as the most likely to acquire one of Korea’s largest builders, according to industry officials Monday.

The results of the Greek elections are in: New Democracy, the conservative “pro-bailout” party, has come in first and appears to have enough support to form a new government, The Washington Post Wonkblog reported. So what does this mean? In the very short term, it likely means Greece won’t be leaving the euro zone. New Democracy’s leader, Antonis Samaras, basically wants to abide by the terms of the country’s bailout agreement with the rest of Europe. Greece will continue to stick with its austerity program — spending cuts, tax hikes, paring back public-sector jobs.