Britons are using buy-now, pay-later like never before to fund their lifestyles, Bloomberg News reported. This model, allowing customers to spread out payments without interest or credit checks, has become the darling of retailers and is drawing a growing menagerie of fintech companies. That’s increasing the competition and risks squeezing industry margins, just as the government gets ready to regulate the sector. Activity rose nearly a fifth to about $27 billion last year, putting it at 7.7% of the UK’s total e-commerce market, according to GlobalData Plc.

Poland’s central bank refrained from cutting interest rates for another month as policymakers’ rhetoric turned more hawkish despite a softer-than-expected inflation print in December, Bloomberg News reported. The Monetary Policy Council kept its benchmark at 5.75% on Thursday — the level where it’s been since late 2023 — in line with the forecasts of all 32 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Inflation — at 4.7% in December — has remained above the central bank’s tolerance range for six months and policymakers are concerned it will stay elevated in the quarters ahead.

The U.K. economy returned to growth in November, but that is unlikely to mark the start of a recovery that will be strong enough to ease concerns about the government’s ability to tame its rising debts, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Office for National Statistics Thursday said gross domestic product was 0.1% higher in November than it was in October, a weaker outcome than the 0.2% rise expected by economists. That marked a modest return to expansion after small declines in output during the two previous months.

Russian consumer prices grew by 9.52% last year compared to 7.42% in 2023, final statistical data showed on Wednesday, making the 2024 inflation rate the fourth highest in the last 15 years, Reuters reported. Russian consumer price growth exceeded 10% in 2022, the year Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, and during the economic crisis of 2014-15, following the annexation of Crimea. Inflation has become a major headache in Russia's overheated economy, where growth is fuelled by the state's military spending.

Altice France’s creditors are demanding the return of shuffled assets and a say in future board appointments as part of negotiations with the company over its €23.7 billion ($24.4 billion) debt pile, Bloomberg Law reported. A group of secured creditors in talks with the distressed telecommunications firm is seeking a return of assets to an entity within their reach and the right to appoint independent directors to the company’s board.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that the potential bankruptcy or sale of the operator of the completed but never launched Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline would amount to "theft," Reuters reported. Lavrov, speaking at a news conference in Moscow, was commenting on the matter after a court in Switzerland extended the deadline for Nord Stream 2 AG, a unit of Russia's Gazprom to restructure its debts to May 9 from Jan. 10. The court also said that Swiss-registered Nord Stream 2 AG had to pay off its debts to small-scale creditors in full within 60 days.

The U.K.’s annual rate of inflation cooled at the end of last year, making it more likely that the Bank of England will continue to lower its key interest rate, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were 2.5% higher in December than a year earlier, down from 2.6% in November, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed Wednesday. Economists had expected annual inflation to stay unchanged, according to a poll compiled by The Wall Street Journal.

Germany’s economy contracted for a second year in a row in 2024, underlining the scale of the challenge that will face a new government after elections due in February, including the possibility of fresh tariffs on exports to the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported. Economic output in Europe’s largest economy sank 0.2% last year after it declined 0.3% in 2023, the first two-year contraction since 2003, the federal statistics agency said Wednesday. That performance contrasts with the U.S., where growth has been surprisingly rapid over the same period.

Any moves to pursue financial deregulation by the incoming U.S. administration would increase the risk of a financial crisis occurring one day, France's central bank governor warned on Wednesday, Reuters reported. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's return to office has raised the prospect of radical changes to the U.S. regulatory framework built up over decades to oversee financial services and banking, as well as digital currencies.