Headlines

The steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta has won a partial reprieve over attempts to force his British operations into insolvency after two winding-up petitions against them were dropped. Sky News has learnt that long-running legal claims against parts of Mr Gupta's Liberty Steel empire in the UK, which employs thousands of people, were withdrawn last week. Originally filed in March 2021, the petitions sought to force Liberty's Speciality Steel arm and a division formally known as Liberty MDR Treasury Company into insolvency.

There is intensifying pressure on Britain’s government to do more to help struggling households, with the country’s shadow finance minister warning of a “mortgage catastrophe” as millions are pushed to the brink of insolvency, CNBC.com reported. The Bank of England last week hiked interest rates by 50 basis points to 5%, a bigger increase than many had expected. The BOE’s 13th consecutive rate rise takes the base rate to the highest level since 2008.

For decades, one fashion accessory was more synonymous with Britain’s most famous music festival, Glastonbury, than any other: Hunter Wellington boots, the New York Times reported. Paparazzi photographs of the likes of Kate Moss, Cara Delevingne and Alexa Chung wearing their Hunters in the early aughts propelled what were once functional footwear favorites of country life into cool style statements with broad global appeal.

Pakistan’s central bank unexpectedly raised its benchmark rate to a record high in an emergency meeting as the nation makes a final attempt to revive its loan program with the International Monetary Fund, Bloomberg News reported. The State Bank of Pakistan’s monetary policy committee decided to raise rates by 100 basis points to 22%, it said in a statement. The decision has been taken after anticipated inflationary pressure that will come from the recently announced budget and decision to lift restrictions on imports, said the statement.

Germany was set to raise its minimum wage by 3.4% to 12.41 euros ($13.53) an hour from 2024, based on the proposals of government-appointed commission on Monday, although unions and analysts said the hike would not be enough to cover inflation, Reuters reported. Labour Minister Hubertus Heil said he would accept the proposals - which were also for a further 3.3% rise to 12.82 euros an hour from January 2025 - though "I can understand that some wished for more". His approval means the changes will most likely go ahead, raising the wages of almost 6 million people.

Ukraine's central bank could start cutting its key rate by one to two percentage points in coming months, notes from the central bank's committee for monetary policy showed on Monday, Reuters reported. The bank has kept its main rate unchanged at 25% since last summer, when it increased the rate to tame growing consumer prices fuelled by Russia's war in Ukraine. Recent economic and inflation trends offer grounds for cautious optimism, the central bank said, adding that the majority of members of its monetary policy committee assumed that rate cuts might start earlier than initially forecast.

The European Union is due on Wednesday to publish draft rules that give legal underpinnings for a digital euro, if the European Central Bank decided to issue one in coming years, Reuters reported. Central banks across the world, from China and Japan to Brazil, Britain and Canada are looking into digital versions of their currencies to avoid a gap in faster payments being filled by the private sector as the use of cash dwindles.

Austria’s largest insolvency in a decade is turning into a race for workers from companies desperate to fill open jobs, Bloomberg News reported. Retailers, banks, insurers, the postal service and even the country’s tiny military have offered to take some of the 1,034 workers initially set to be laid off from furniture chain Kika/Leiner. The bankrupt firm is itself organizing a jobs fair to aid the process.

Brazilian retailer Americanas SA is scrambling to finalize its fourth-quarter income statement even as it redoubles efforts to get creditors on side for a bankruptcy restructuring plan, Reuters reported. Americanas, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January after uncovering 20 billion reais, some $4 billion, in accounting fraud, is now negotiating changes in the plan to win over debt holders who have previously indicated they would reject it.