Britain’s jobless rate hit its lowest since 1974 but the drop was due mostly to a fall in the size of the workforce and there were other signs that the country’s jobs boom is petering out, adding to the Bank of England’s inflation headache.

Britain’s economy grew by less than expected in July, raising the risk that it is already in a recession, with the sharp climb in energy tariffs hurting demand for electricity and a leap in the cost of materials hitting the construction sector.

Economists hiked their estimate for annual inflation in Argentina this year to 95 per cent, a monthly poll published Friday by the central bank showed, as the country struggles to overcome a prolonged economic crisis marked by soaring prices.

Tanker trucks filled with milk collected from across northern France waited in line to unload their precious cargo at one of the country’s biggest yoghurt factories on a recent morning, but this ritual is at risk as the nation considers how to cut energy use.

Russian bank Unistream, which specialises in money transfers, has seen a surge in remittances since Moscow began operations in Ukraine and plans to launch instant transfers to India, Turkey and countries in Africa, its board chairman told Reuters.

Russia’s economy shrank 4.1 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2022, data from the federal statistics service Rosstat showed on Friday, revising the contraction assessment from the previously reported 4.0 per cent.

British shoppers are cutting back on purchases of clothes and other non-essential items as they try to cover their sky-rocketing utility bills and higher food prices, surveys showed on Tuesday.

The hit to the euro zone economy and its currency from a deepening energy crisis is so severe that more aggressive monetary tightening from the European Central Bank will do little to stop the euro’s slide.

Finland and Switzerland provided billions in financial support to power companies on Tuesday, as Europe scrambles to secure energy supplies in a deepening crisis sparked by Russia’s move to shut a major gas pipeline.

Russia has raked in a whopping 158 billion euros ($158 billion) in energy exports in the six months following its invasion of Ukraine, with the EU accounting for more than half, a think tank said Tuesday.

German industrial orders slumped for the sixth consecutive month in July, official data showed Tuesday, raising the spectre that a recession was looming in Europe’s biggest economy.

European gas prices rocketed as much as 30 per cent higher on Monday after Russia said one of its main gas supply pipelines to Europe would stay shut indefinitely, stoking renewed fears about shortages and gas rationing in the European Union this winter.

The euro zone is almost certainly entering a recession, with surveys on Monday showing a deepening cost of living crisis and a gloomy outlook that is keeping consumers wary of spending.

The euro sunk below $0.99 on Monday, a 20-year-low, following the announcement last week that Russia would cut off gas deliveries to Germany via the Nord Stream pipeline.

Germany’s constiutional debt brake will not be affected by a 65 billion euro ($64.68 billion) relief package to help citizens and companies cope with rising inflation, Finance Minister Christian Lindner said in Sunday.

Capping the price of Russian oil, an approach G7 members said Friday they want to pursue “urgently,” would be an unprecedented move and one which some analysts say could backfire.

The German government on Sunday unveiled a new multi-billion euro plan to help housesholds cope with soaring prices, and said it was eyeing windfall profits from energy companies to help fund the relief.

Russia on Friday scrapped a Saturday deadline to resume flows via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Europe, saying it had discovered a fault during maintenance, deepening Europe’s difficulties in securing fuel for winter.

The British government is set to release data showing around 1.1 billion pounds of small business loans ($1.27 billion) made under a Covid-19 emergency lending scheme has already been classified as suspected fraud, a source told Reuters.

Britain’s house prices cooled only slightly last month, a key survey showed Thursday, but remain vulnerable to rising interest rates and the cost of living crisis.