The European Central Bank should refrain from lowering interest rates again after inflation in the 20-nation currency area hit the 2% target in June, rate setter Isabel Schnabel said Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported. “Our interest rates are also in a good place, and the bar for another rate cut is very high,” Schnabel said in an interview with Econostream Media. The ECB last month reduced its key rate for the eighth time since June 2024, with some policymakers suggesting it is nearing the end of the cutting cycle.
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Britain’s Labour Party ended a year in power in misery last week, after Prime Minister Keir Starmer made a U-turn on plans to cut welfare spending and Rachel Reeves, the chancellor of the Exchequer, was caught looking teary-eyed in Parliament, the New York Times reported. The second year is already shaping up to be just as challenging. On Tuesday, the Office for Budget Responsibility, an independent watchdog, said Britain’s public finances were in a “vulnerable position” after a series of major global economic shocks.

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While airline bankruptcy news in the U.S. have been dominated by Silver Airways and Spirit Airlines, a number of smaller airlines from around the world have also struggled to the point of having to cease operations over the last year, The Street reported. Founded as a charter and cargo airline meant to link the Western European nation with China, Air Belgium was accruing annual losses of €22 million (roughly $24 million USD) at the time it filed for bankruptcy protection and was ordered to go into liquidation.

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The British police arrested four people, including three teenagers, on Thursday in connection with an April cyberattack that cost the retail giant Marks & Spencer millions of pounds and disrupted operations at Harrods and Co-op, the New York Times reported. Three males, two aged 19 and another aged 17, and one female, 20, were apprehended at their homes in the West Midlands and in London on Thursday morning, the authorities said.

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It was reported on July 7 that Argeo and its Norwegian subsidiaries Argeo Survey, Argeo Robotics and Argeo Multiclient had resolved to file for bankruptcy as the group was in a challenging financial position, with limited liquidity and limited resources to satisfy its short- and long-term obligations, said to be due to a difficult market situation and the lack of necessary contracts to generate stable revenue, Offshore-Energy.biz reported. In the same announcement, it was stated that non-Norwegian subsidiaries in Scotland, Singapore and the U.S.

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Le Coq Sportif, in receivership, has been acquired by a group led by Franco-Swiss entrepreneur Dan Mamane, SGB Media reported. The new investors have committed to investing an initial €70 million (US$82.1 million) into the company to revive its growth. Le Coq Sportif has been owned since 2005 by Marc-Henri Beausire’s Swiss group Airesis. Mamane’s consortium is backed by the Mirabaud Patrimoine Vivant investment fund, which had previously taken a minority stake in Le Coq Sportif.

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