The annual rate of inflation in the eurozone cooled for the first time in five months during February, reassuring news for policymakers at the European Central Bank as they prepare to meet later this week, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were 2.4% higher in February than a year earlier, the EU’s statistics agency said Monday. That was a slower rate of inflation than the 2.5% recorded in January and followed four straight months of steadily faster price rises.

The Bank of England’s Andrew Bailey is a leading candidate to become the next chair of the Financial Stability Board, a move that would upend how the watchdog traditionally rotates its leadership at a fraught time for global policy making, Bloomberg News reported. While Bailey is considered a frontrunner for the role, the group remains in discussions about who should take over for the Dutch National Bank’s Klaas Knot when his chair term expires in July, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing non-public deliberations.

Britain's financial watchdog said on Friday a four-year prison sentence has been issued in the UK's first case involving unregistered cryptoasset activity, Reuters reported. London-based Olumide Osunkoya was found guilty of operating unregistered crypto ATMs for transactions worth 2.5 million pounds ($3.2 million) across several locations within the UK between December 2021 and March 2022, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said in a statement. Osunkoya was also convicted and sentenced for forgery, using false identity documents, and possessing criminal property at the court hearing.

German inflation unexpectedly remained unchanged in February, highlighting the challenges for the European Central Bank in deciding how quickly and how far to cut interest rates, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices increased 2.8% from a year ago, the statistics office said Friday. Economists in a Bloomberg survey had expected a slight slowdown to 2.7%. The report follows earlier figures showing French inflation retreated to its lowest level in four years, while price gains in Italy surprisingly held steady.

Almost half of councils in England risk falling into bankruptcy without action to address a £4.6bn deficit amassed under a Conservative-era policy, the government’s spending watchdog has warned, The Guardian reported. In a damning report, the National Audit Office said that rising pressure on public services and repeated delays to reform the funding of local government meant town halls were in an “unsustainable” financial position.

The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System booked a loss on its $325 million investment in Northvolt AB, the Swedish electric vehicle battery maker that filed for bankruptcy protection last year, Bloomberg News reported. “At the time we made the investments, Northvolt represented an attractive growth opportunity supported by several other of the world’s most respected investors,” a spokesperson for the pension manager said by email.

Germany’s jobless rate held steady in February, a sign that recent workforce reductions announced at some major companies hasn’t yet significantly dented employment, the Wall Street Journal reported. The adjusted unemployment rate in Europe’s largest economy was 6.2% this month, the same as in January, according to data from Germany’s Federal Employment Agency published on Friday. Meanwhile, jobless claims ticked up by 5,000 in February, albeit slowing from the 11,000 of January. Registered job vacancies stood at 639,000, some 67,000 fewer than the same point last year.