The European Central Bank said it will respond in a “forceful or persistent” manner to big swings in inflation, reflecting the lessons learned from the postpandemic price surge in its latest strategy review, the Wall Street Journal reported. In common with other central banks, the ECB was criticized for being too slow to respond to a pickup in inflation in 2021 when the annual rate peaked at above 10% by late 2022.

Germany’s annual inflation rate fell in June to 2%, in line with the European Central Bank’s target, preliminary data showed. The new reading for Europe’s largest economy reflected a broader easing across the continent — a positive sign for the central bank as it weighs further rate cuts this year, SEMAFOR reported. “Overall, it’s safe to say that the days of high inflation are over for now,” Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank, told Der Spiegel.

Staffordshire, U.K.-based hire and fleet management firm Prohire has taken initial steps to appoint an administrator, Motor Transport reported. The company filed an application in court this week notifying its intention to appoint insolvency experts. The application was lodged on 25 June. The last available set of accounts for the business showed that turnover had increased by £8.5m in the year ending 31 March 2024 to £52.9m. It attributed this mainly to annualisation of prior year and current year contract hire new business secured.

Conflict in the Middle East has pushed inflation higher for the first time in 2025 and weakened confidence in the eurozone, according to data released Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were 0.8% higher in France and 2.2% higher in Spain in June than a year earlier compared with 0.6% and 2% in May, respectively, according to European Union harmonized data.

The ECB should abandon targeting headline inflation and focus instead on price growth in discretionary spending to protect the bloc's poorest, a paper to be presented to policymakers at the bank's preeminent research conference argued on Friday, Reuters reported. The ECB targets inflation at 2% and a soon-to-be-concluded review will not even discuss the definition of the target as policymakers have long argued that using a different measures, like underlying inflation, or figures incorporating housings costs, could sow confusion.

Eleven executives from companies including Japan's Mitsubishi and Luxembourg-based International Chemical Investors (ICIG) were convicted for contaminating nearly 200 square kilometres (77 square miles) of drinking water as well as soil through the Miteni plant in the northeastern city of Trissino, France24.com reported. The court sentenced them to prison terms ranging from two years and eight months to 17 years, in the case of two executives at now-folded Italian firm Miteni.

The head of a construction company has been disqualified as a director for 11 years after his four companies reclaimed almost £400,000 in VAT they were not entitled to, ConstructionNews.co.uk reported. Hassan Waqar, who is now based in Dubai, submitted falsified documents to HMRC and failed to provide supporting evidence for VAT repayment claims, the Insolvency Service said.

Global payments processors Visa and Mastercard's default multilateral interchange fees which are charged to retailers infringe competition law, a London tribunal ruled on Friday in the latest round of the long-running legal saga, Reuters reported. London's Competition Appeal Tribunal unanimously ruled that Visa and Mastercard's multilateral interchange fees breach European competition law, in a ruling in linked lawsuits brought by hundreds of merchants.

A supplier of military microelectronic components in Stavropol, Russia, has not been providing Moscow with important parts for its aircraft as the Kremlin cannot pay enough, its leadership said, the Kyiv Post reported. The company, Optron-Stavropol, reportedly was being paid so little by the Ministry of Defense for its orders that it suffered losses and mounting debts so great as to suspend production earlier this year.