Long feted as the savior of Russia’s economy in the face of sanctions over the war in Ukraine, central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina is increasingly under attack from officials who say she’s now destroying it with record high interest rates, Bloomberg News reported. Nabiullina faces rising criticism within the Russian political and business elite ahead of the bank’s final rate-setting meeting of the year on Friday. Analysts forecast that policymakers may hike the key interest rate to 23% from 21% now, and possibly as high as 24% to curb persistent high inflation.

More insolvencies hit construction than any other sector in the year to November, according to new official figures, ConstrucitonNews.co.uk reported. The latest data from the Insolvency Service revealed that 4,208 construction firms became insolvent in the year to November 2024. It means the sector represented 17 per cent of liquidations, administrations and company voluntary arrangements across England and Wales this year.

Thames Water has won court approval to secure a £3bn cash lifeline from some of its biggest creditors, The Guardian reported. The company will need to hold a formal vote to win support from the majority of creditors in January, before its deal is rubber-stamped by the courts in February. The decision, which covers a complex debt-restructuring effort, was essential to ensure the company has enough money to stave off temporary nationalisation, Thames said.

The number of people going financially insolvent across England and Wales was 25% higher in November this year than in the same month in 2023, according to Insolvency Service figures, the Independent reported. Some 10,012 people entered insolvency in England and Wales in November 2024, which was also a 12% jump when compared with the previous month. The insolvencies were made up of 589 bankruptcies, 3,693 debt relief orders (DROs) and 5,730 individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs).

Sweden’s Intrum AB has struck an agreement with a noteholder group that could resolve a key obstacle in the debt collector’s bid to restructure in U.S. bankruptcy court, Bloomberg News reported. The company had “come to terms” with the group of debt holders ahead of a hearing in the US bankruptcy court, according to Andrew M. Leblanc, a company attorney. The agreement requires the consents of other parties, a process that’s currently underway, he said at a Monday hearing in Texas.

Denmark’s biggest pension fund, ATP, is taking a major hit on its 2.3 billion-krone ($324 million) stake in troubled battery maker Northvolt AB, Danish broadcaster DR reported, according to Bloomberg News. ATP is one of the largest owners in Northvolt with a stake of about 5%. The value of that holding “probably won’t be very far from zero,” the asset manager’s Chief Executive Officer Martin Praestegaard told DR in an interview, stopping short of giving a specific amount for the writedown. “By far most of the investment is gone,” Praestegaard said, according to DR.

The European Central Bank is likely to continue to lower its key interest rate as the threat of U.S. tariffs clouds already weak growth prospects, President Christine Lagarde said on Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Policymakers at the eurozone’s central bank lowered the key rate for their third straight meeting Thursday. In a speech in Lithuania, Lagarde said further cuts are on the way. “The direction of travel is clear and we expect to lower interest rates further,” she said.

Germany's economic downturn eased slightly in December but business activity still contracted for a sixth month running, according to a survey published on Monday, Reuters reported. The HCOB German flash composite Purchasing Managers' Index, compiled by S&P Global, rose to 47.8 from 47.2 in November, but remained in contraction territory. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a reading of 47.8. The business activity index for Germany's services sector rose to 51.0 in December from 49.3 in November, beating the forecast of 49.4. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion.

Private-sector business activity in France shrank for a fourth month as the fall of the government over a budget dispute sapped confidence, Bloomberg News reported. S&P Global’s Composite Purchasing Managers Index came in at 46.7 in December, staying below the 50 threshold separating expansion from contraction. Still, it’s an improvement from last month and also a bit better than the median estimate among analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Manufacturing and services also stayed in contractionary territory, though the latter exceeded expectations.