U.K. consumers face a brutal squeeze in 2011 as wage increases fail to keep pace with soaring inflation and the threat of rising unemployment tempers people's ability to negotiate pay increases, The Wall Street Journal reported. Data showed Wednesday that in the three months to November, growth in pay, excluding bonuses, remained at 2.3%, while data Tuesday showed annual inflation jumped to 3.7% in December from 3.3% in November.

Greece was in talks with other European countries in an effort to lower interest rates on a rescue loan package worth a total euro110 billion ($146 billion), the finance minister said Wednesday. Greece has already received support from countries using the euro and the International Monetary Fund for its effort to extend the repayment of the rescue loans. A final deal has yet to be worked out, the Associated Press reported.

The High Court has approved a survival plan for the Zumo chain of juice and smoothies bars, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. Mediterranean Food and Wine Ltd, the company which operates Zumo, was granted court protection from its creditors last October because it had become insolvent and was unable to pay its debts. The firm is the largest fruit juice and smoothie bar chain in Europe and has a presence in 12 countries. At its peak, it operated 33 stores at home and abroad plus another seven under a franchise agreement.

David Drumm has reached agreement with lawyers for Anglo Irish Bank on a proposed protective order. If approved by a judge, it will enable him to keep elements of his bankruptcy proceedings secret, the Irish Times reported. The bankruptcy judge, Frank Bailey, will decide today whether the Drumms’ holiday home in Cape Cod can be sold in the interest of paying Mr Drumm’s debts.

U.K. consumer-price inflation accelerated sharply in December, underscoring the view that the Bank of England's most likely next move will be to tighten policy, but the economy's fragility suggests that action is a while off yet, The Wall Street Journal reported. Data from the Office for National Statistics Tuesday showed annual inflation jumped to 3.7% last month from 3.3% in November, well above expectations as economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a figure of 3.4%.

The top European official in charge of financial reform called on banks to behave "morally" when deciding bonuses and warned he will ensure new EU rules that curb cash payouts are respected, Reuters reported. "I would call for moderation and responsibility," EU Commissioner Michel Barnier told journalists on Tuesday after a meeting of finance ministers to examine stress-testing banks' financial health.

House prices declined by 3.5 per cent in the final quarter of last year and are down 38 per cent since prices peaked at the end of 2006, according to the latest Permanent TSB/ESRI House Price Index, the Irish Times reported. While the rate of decline in average house prices in Ireland rose in the fourth quarter the rate of decline for the year as a whole was significantly less than what was seen in 2009. House prices fell by 10.8 per cent in 2010 compared to a drop of 18.5 per cent in 2009.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has agreed on a strategic plan for a second European Union-wide stress test to assess the resilience of Europe's banking sector, Banking Business Review reported. The tests, which aim to analyze the ability of banks to react to hypothetical stressed situations, are expected to be conducted in the first quarter of 2011. The results will be published in June or July. The tests will be carried out in cooperation with the national supervisory authorities, the European Systemic Risk Board, the European Central Bank and the European Commission.

European finance ministers debated Monday how to beef up their giant rescue fund for troubled euro-zone countries but ended the first day of a two-day meeting without reaching a firm resolution on how to do it, amid German reluctance to open the doors to more and bigger bailouts, The Wall Street Journal reported. Germany's disinclination to speed ahead dovetails with what European diplomats describe as a momentary air of calm that has descended on the bloc's sovereign debt crisis.

A major creditor filed on Monday an insolvency claim against the dominant Czech lottery firm Sazka, a court said, raising the stakes in a battle for control of the indebted firm, Reuters reported. A company controlled by real estate investor Radovan Vitek filed the claim with Prague City Court after he said Sazka failed to make timely payment on 820 million crowns ($44.78 million) of its debt he had acquired from banks.