The head of Italy's fashion chamber said he has appealed to its government to protect the country's second-largest industry from possible tariffs from the Trump administration, the Associated Press reported. “We hope they don’t arrive,’’ Italian National Fashion Chamber President Carlo Capasa said Wednesday during the presentation of the calendar for the next Milan Fashion Week later this month.

French factory production unexpectedly dropped at the end of the year, contributing to a backsliding in the eurozone’s second-largest economy, with few signs of a rapid rebound at the start of 2025, the Wall Street Journal reported. Total output of goods was 0.7% lower on month in December, reversing a slight increase in November, statistics agency Insee said Wednesday. That was a worse result than the stagnation forecast by economists, according to a poll compiled by The Wall Street Journal, and means output decreased in seven out of 12 months last year.

Allowing Thames Water to run out of money by not approving restructuring plans is “a risk which cannot be run”, the High Court has been told, PA Media reported. Thames Water Utilities Holdings Limited, the parent company of Thames Water Group, England’s largest water company, is set to run out of cash by March 24 and risks entering special administration if a judge does not approve its plans to inject up to £3 billion to keep it afloat.

The European Union wants to engage swiftly with the United States over President Donald Trump's planned tariffs, trade chief Maros Sefcovic said on Tuesday, while his boss Ursula von der Leyen stressed the bloc would protect its interests in negotiations, Reuters reported. Sefcovic, speaking before a meeting of EU ministers to debate trade and EU competitiveness, said he wanted "early engagement" and was awaiting confirmation of the appointment of Trump's pick for Commerce Secretary, financier Howard Lutnick.

European officials need to manage their expectations in diplomatic negotiations against a more volatile geopolitical environment, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in reference to a possible trade war between the bloc and the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported.

Central bank body the Bank for International Settlements has urged the likes of the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank to revamp the way they approach interest rate setting to avoid the collective failures that allowed inflation to soar after the pandemic, Reuters reported. Outgoing BIS chief Agustin Carstens used a speech almost five years to the day since COVID-19 shuttered the world economy to call for changes as part of "policy framework reviews" in both the U.S. and euro zone this year.

In the three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ignited an energy crisis across Europe, the continent has transformed how it generates and stores power, the New York Times reported. Russian natural gas, long Europe’s energy lifeline, has been replaced with other sources, notably liquefied natural gas from the United States. Wind and solar power generation has leaped around 50 percent since 2021. New nuclear power plants are being planned across the continent. But Europe’s energy security remains fragile.

Just days after Spain’s economy was revealed to be far outpacing its peers, Pedro Sanchez’s government has a new message for voters: stop working so much, Bloomberg News reported. In a move that risks invoking international stereotypes about the Mediterranean lifestyle, the premier and his cabinet agreed on Tuesday that employees in the fourth-biggest member of the euro zone should now have a shorter week. The cap on hours will be 37.5 as of the start of next year, down from 40 at present, if the proposed law now passes through parliament.