German battery pioneer CustomCells has filed for insolvency proceedings for the group’s key operating entities located in Itzehoe and Tübingen, BatteriesNews.com reported. The competent court in Kiel has appointed attorney Dr. Malte Köster, a partner at the law firm WILLMERKÖSTER, as the preliminary insolvency administrator of the operating companies. WILLMERKÖSTER is one of the leading insolvency law firms in Germany. The holding company of the CustomCells Group is not affected by the insolvency filing at this time.

The Bank of England is expected to lower interest rates by a quarter point on May 8 as U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs darken the global growth outlook, and some economists think the BoE will soon need to speed up its gradual approach to rate cuts, Reuters reported. BoE Governor Andrew Bailey, speaking in Washington last week after the International Monetary Fund downgraded UK and global growth prospects, said he was taking "very seriously" the risks posed by Trump's tariffs.

European carmakers, including Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis and Volkswagen, said Wednesday that the chaos and upheaval caused by the tariffs introduced by President Trump had left them struggling to assess the impact and unable to plan for the future, the New York Times reported. After years of sluggish demand and high inflation, Europe’s carmakers headed into 2025 with a raft of new battery-powered models and high hopes that they would lure back customers. Instead, they are faced with global uncertainty surrounding supply chains and customer demand, set off by Mr.

A cryptoasset business registered in the UK has been shut down after people from multiple countries said they paid for crypto mining services but did not receive the promised financial returns and were unable to withdraw their assets, according to a U.K. Insolvency Service press release. BTCMining Limited claimed to operate a cryptoasset mining business, where customers would pay the company to mine crypto and receive any resulting income.

The German economy grew in the first quarter of the year thanks to consumption and investment, escaping a recession after contracting in the last quarter of last year, data showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Gross domestic product rose in line with forecasts, by 0.2%, compared with the previous three-month period, preliminary data from the statistics office showed. Germany had contracted in the final quarter of last year by 0.2%, reigniting recession fears. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

Germany is loosening a regulatory measure designed to soften the blow of a property crisis, a sign that officials are somewhat less worried about fallout from the nation’s troubled real-estate industry, Reuters reported. BaFin, the German financial regulator, said on Wednesday that it would trim to 1% from 2% the amount it requires banks to hold as capital for residential mortgage loans. “The vulnerabilities on the German real estate market have declined significantly, but have not yet been fully eliminated,” BaFin said.

The eurozone economy grew at a faster pace in the first three months of the year, aided by U.S. businesses building up stocks of imported goods in anticipation of higher tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reported. However, activity is likely to weaken as the implementation of those U.S. tariffs weigh on demand for European exports for the remainder of the year, and heightened uncertainty chills investment and household spending.

German meats supplier Allgäu Fresh Foods (AAF) has filed for insolvency protection proceedings amid “increasing” cost pressures, GlobalData reported. In a statement announcing the move, the company said it submitted the application to the competent district court in Kempten on 22 April. The Feneberg Group subsidiary said cost and price pressures have been “increasing simultaneously” in this business segment for many years. “To ensure continued success in the future, the company must implement extensive restructuring.

Ireland’s economy surged in the three months through March as U.S. pharmaceutical giants based in the country boosted production to build stockpiles back home ahead of threatened tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reported. Ireland’s strong start to the year, alongside a pickup in Belgium, supported eurozone growth as 2025 got underway, with figures for the currency area to be released Wednesday. Spain, which also released figures Tuesday, recorded a slight slowdown, while continuing to grow at a robust pace. However, high levels of production to build reserves of drugs in the U.S.