Europe

Individual bankruptcies in Britain jumped 9.5 percent in the third quarter from last year, while company insolvencies rose 26 percent as the financial crisis hiked the cost of loans, official figures showed Friday. Britain's Office for National Statistics said 17,341 people declared bankruptcy in the three months through September, up from 15,842 in the same quarter of 2007, the Associated Press reported today. The number of bankruptcies was 12 percent higher than it was in the previous quarter.

The International Monetary Fund has “record levels of liquidity” to combat the global economic crisis and debate over new ways of supplementing its coffers was not “today’s problem”, according to John Lipsky, IMF first deputy director. With the Fund facing unprecedented calls on its resources, some policymakers have raised concerns about its continued capacity to react to demands such as its $16.5 billion loan to Ukraine and $2 billion loan to Iceland, the Financial Times reported yesterday.

Britain-based porcelain maker Royal Worcester & Spode Ltd. has gone into bankruptcy, the Associated Press reported yesterday. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said it had been appointed to administer the company, which manufactures and sells earthware and china products. The company employs 388 people in Britain and has a site in the U.S. state of New Jersey. PricewaterhouseCoopers said the company's U.S. subsidiary was outside its formal administration regime but that it would coordinate its moves with the American management team.

Iceland began the early stages of figuring out how to restructure its banks' enormous foreign debts as its economy descends into what its central bank warned Thursday would be a "severe recession," the Wall Street Journal reported today. The IMF board is expected to consider a proposed $2.1 billion loan to Iceland on Friday, part of an effort to shore up several countries caught off guard as liquidity froze amid the financial crisis.

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday approved a $16.5 billion loan program for Ukraine that includes monetary and exchange rate policy shifts to ease strains from the global financial crisis, Reuters reported yesterday. The IMF said it would immediately disburse $4.5 billion to the government under the two-year loan agreement.

Officials from four Nordic central banks and finance ministries held a private meeting in Stockholm on Wednesday to discuss their contributions to a $6 billion rescue package for Iceland, the Financial Times reported. The gathering was a strong sign that Denmark, Sweden and Finland are drawing closer to announcing a multibillion euro package of loans after Norway agreed a €500m ($648m, £405m) advance last week. The four Nordic nations have said they are willing to support Iceland but only after it agreed to design and implement an economic stabilisation plan in association with the IMF.