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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.

Consumer inflation in the Tokyo metropolitan area eased in June but remained firmly above the Bank of Japan’s 2% target, leaving the central bank balancing on a policy tightrope, the Wall Street Journal reported. Core consumer prices in Tokyo—excluding fresh food—climbed 3.1% in June from a year earlier, compared with May’s 3.6% increase, government data showed Friday. That was lower than the 3.3% rise expected in a poll of economists by data provider Quick. Tokyo figures are considered an early indicator of nationwide trends.

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.

The Bank of Mexico on Thursday lowered its benchmark interest rate by half of a percentage point in a split vote and left the door open for further cuts, the Wall Street Journal reported. The five-member board of governors voted 4-1 in favor of cutting the overnight interest-rate target to 8% from 8.5%. It is the bank’s fourth straight half-point reduction, and brought the rate to its lowest level in almost three years. Deputy Gov. Jonathan Heath voted to leave the rate at 8.5%. “Looking ahead, the board will assess further adjustments to the reference rate,” the central bank 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.

Bolivia's central bank on Friday reiterated a dramatic uptick in transactions of digital assets, following a Reuters report that showed how more Bolivians were turning to crypto exchanges like Binance and stablecoins like Tether as a hedge against the depreciation of the local boliviano currency. According to new figures published on Friday by the Bolivian central bank, transactions using Electronic Payment Channels and Instruments for Virtual Assets (VA) soared more than 530%, from $46.5 million in the first half of 2024, to $294 million in the same period of 2025.

A payments company backed by African political leaders has launched a blockchain-based marketplace for trading local currencies, in a bid to make it easier for companies to repatriate their profits and reduce the continent’s dependence on the dollar in regional trade, Semafor reported. The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), a company set up by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and endorsed by the African Union in 2019, publicly launched the exchange this week after testing it in a year-long pilot program.