UK investment manager Intermediate Capital Group Plc is suing a real estate services firm over property valuations it says were inflated and against which it lent hundreds of millions of pounds, Bloomberg News reported. The case revolves around an estimated £500 million ($657 million) owed to ICG funds by caravan park owner RoyaleLife, people with knowledge of the matter said. The retirement-focused real estate business collapsed last year and its owner, Bob Bull, was declared bankrupt.

Swiss inflation weakened to the slowest pace in more than three years, pointing to further monetary easing by the country’s central bank, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 0.8% from a year ago in September, Switzerland’s statistics office said Thursday. That’s much lower than the 1% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey and compares with 1.1% in August. Costs for holidays and air travel fell, as did prices for gasoline, heating oil and diesel, offsetting higher charges for clothing and footwear, according to a statement.

Triton Partners is poised to hand over the keys of personnel provider Univativ to private credit fund Pemberton Asset Management, an existing lender to the company, Bloomberg News reported. A spokesperson for Pemberton confirmed the transfer of ownership of Univativ. Triton will retain an economic interest in the German firm, which finds jobs for university graduates, according to the Pemberton representative. Triton’s acquisition of Univativ was financed by a unitranche loan from Pemberton in 2017. The parties at the time did not disclose the overall size of the loan facility.

Italy plans to raise taxes on the companies that benefitted most from the economic turbulence of recent years in order to help bring down the country’s budget deficit, Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said, Bloomberg News reported. Giorgetti said that he is looking at levies that would apply to companies in a number of industries, without offering any further detail. Italy’s benchmark stock index fell as much as 1.5%. The 57-year-old finance chief faces a delicate balancing act in trying to persuade Italian executives to accept his plans without provoking a public backlash.

The majority of banks in Belgium held up well in a recent stress test regarding the guarantee of customer deposits if they went bankrupt. However, six banks failed to provide sufficient information to the Federal Government. A recent test conducted by the State Guarantee Fund (managed by the Ministry of Finance) assessed whether 29 different banks in Belgium were able to meet legal requirements in the event of a bankruptcy. All credit institutions which hold deposits in Belgium were tested, including Argenta, Belfius, BNP Paribas Fortis, CBC, Crelan, ING and KBC.

Euro-area inflation slowed below the European Central Bank’s 2% target for the first time since 2021 — backing investor bets that interest rates may be lowered more quickly than previously anticipated, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 1.8% from a year ago in September, down from 2.2% in the previous month as energy costs fell sharply, Eurostat said Tuesday. The reading matched a Bloomberg survey of analysts — as was core inflation, which eased to 2.7%.

Financial markets remain vulnerable to a sharp correction, the Bank of England warned Wednesday as a twice-yearly survey found that geopolitical developments are seen as the greatest threat to stability, the Wall Street Journal reported. The BOE’s Financial Policy Committe has repeatedly warned that valuations of many financial assets, particularly equities, are “stretched” and could fall sharply in response to economic or geopolitical shocks.

France plans around €60 billion ($66.4 billion) in spending cuts and tax hikes next year as Prime Minister Michel Barnier seeks to claw back a widening budget deficit and bolster investor confidence in the country, Bloomberg News reported. The savings are required to bring the budget shortfall to 5% of economic output from around 6.1% this year, government officials said in a briefing to journalists on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with internal rules.

Poland extended its period of interest-rate stability to one year after inflation picked up beyond the central bank’s tolerance range, Bloomberg News reported. The Monetary Policy Council kept its benchmark at 5.75% in line with the forecasts of all 35 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The decision comes after regional peers in the Czech Republic and Hungary both reduced rates and the Federal Reserve eased its monetary policy for the first time in four years with a half-point rate reduction.