Headlines

U.K. households reported that their finances deteriorated at the fastest pace for seven months in November, as weak pay growth and rising inflation expectations combined to limit cash availability, a survey showed Monday, highlighting the underlying fragility of the recovering economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. Data firm Markit's monthly household finances index fell to a balance of 38.8 in November from October's 41.0--the lowest since April--reflecting concerns over low pay rises and the recent increases in energy prices announced by several suppliers.

Germany challenged a central plank of plans to forge a banking union in the euro zone on Thursday, arguing against the use of the currency bloc's funds to help lenders exposed as dangerously weak by health checks next year, Reuters reported. As finance ministers gathered in Brussels to outline plans to deal with banks still in difficulty, Germany's finance minister hardened his stance on the use of the bloc's emergency fund, according to people close to the talks.

Ireland and Spain said Thursday they could stand on their own feet once their bailout programs end in the coming months, marking significant steps as the euro zone battles to exit a four-year debt crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported. The currency union's finance ministers hailed the decisions as signs that their strategy of budget cuts, economic overhauls and long-term rescue loans was working.

Top shareholder Air France-KLM refused a plea for cash on Thursday to rescue Alitalia, saying a new business plan was not enough to save the stricken Italian carrier unless its creditors also write off some of its huge debts, Reuters reported. Alitalia, which was privatised in 2008, has been unprofitable for more than a decade and has been stuck in a months-long tussle with Air France-KLM over whether to keep their strategic and financial partnership alive.

KBC Bank Ireland chief executive John Reynolds is to step down after almost 30 years with the company, the Irish Times reported. The Belgian lender also announced it would need to make a provision of up to €775 million in the fourth quarter for potentially lost loans and mortgages in its Irish loan book. This was as a result of moving restructured mortgages from a non-impaired status to an impaired status, it said. In a statement this morning, the bank said Mr Reynolds, who has been chief executive of the company for four years, is leaving to pursue other interests.

Thailand’s biggest bout of political unrest under the current government has increased economic risks, threatening to crimp a rebound from recession as protests damp local consumption and investment while weakening the currency. Gross domestic product will rise an average 3.6 percent this year, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 26 economists, lower than a forecast of 4 percent in August. GDP probably expanded last quarter from the previous three months after contracting in the first half of the year, a separate survey showed ahead of a report due Nov. 18.

The man behind what is thought to be New Zealand's largest Ponzi scheme has been sentenced to 10 years and 10 months in prison, The New Zealand Herald reported. Wellington financier and former head of the Ross Asset Management group, David Ross, was sentenced in the Wellington District Court by Judge Denys Barry today. Ross had pleaded guilty to five charges brought against him by the Serious Fraud Office, including four for false accounting and one for theft by person in a special relationship.

Spain's biggest consumer appliance company Fagor said on Wednesday it had started insolvency proceedings after failing to reach a deal on debt which it needed to keep going as sales fell, Reuters reported. Spanish bankruptcies have risen steadily this year, after a prolonged economic downturn that sapped consumer spending and as bank lending falls. Fagor, however, was part of the Mondragon group in the northern Basque Country region, a large cooperative seen as a flexible organisation that was riding out the crisis. Fagor is the fifth-largest electrical appliance company in Europe.

South Korea’s three biggest shipping companies face a cash crunch as 3 trillion won ($2.8 billion) of bonds are due for repayment in the next two years amid mounting losses from a global slump in rates to carry cargo, Bloomberg reported. Hanjin Shipping Co., Hyundai Merchant Marine Co. and STX Pan Ocean Co. are all forecast to post losses in 2013 for a third consecutive year, further denting the combined 1.5 trillion won of cash and near cash items they had as of the end of June. The companies need to repay 1.4 trillion won of bonds next year and 1.6 trillion won the year after.

Germany's status as Europe’s industrial powerhouse could be damaging the single-currency bloc, the European Commission has said, as it launched a probe into whether the country’s large trade surplus was hindering Europe’s recovery, The Telegraph reported. Europe’s biggest economy was one of three countries singled out for an “in-depth review” by the EC’s Alert Mechanism Report on Wednesday. The Commission said Germany’s large current account surplus, which accounts for most of the eurozone’s positive balance, “may put pressure on the euro to appreciate vis-à-vis other currencies.