Under public pressure over support they received from the public purse during the critical lockdown period, British supermarkets are choosing to pay back business relief rates amounting to more than $2 billion. 

Meanwhile, after warnings from the IMF about the impact of COVID-19 in Spain, new figures show France and Germany both recorded a fall in business activity last month, with services worst hit. However, Germany's mighty manufacturing sector looks set to once again save the day in the eurozone's biggest economy.    

The oil-producing cartel OPEC+ is still undecided on which way to jump in 2021, with vaccine hopes encouraging some members to suggest a loosening of the taps is now overdue.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has been spelling out in no uncertain terms the online future that policymakers have planned under the new Digital Services Act. Tech giants, still tusselling with France over the issues of tax and content management, are warned to expect a very different outlook in 2021. Click below to hear her speak. 

And this week CGTN was joined by President Trump's short-lived communications director and former Wall Street financier Anthony Scaramucci. He describes why he is a fan of cryptocurrencies and why he thinks the next boom in global wealth (just around the corner?) must be accompanied by more responsible public management.   

Happy reading, 

Louise Greenwood

Digital news producer 

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Three of the UK's biggest supermarket chains say they are to pay back the $1.2bn they collectively received in business rates relief during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sainsburys, Asda and German owned Aldi acted after rival chains Tesco and Morrisons announced earlier this week that they would repay the $1.1bn handed to them in public support as the UK went into lockdown. 

It's now believed spending on food, drink and household goods rose during the two lockdown periods and Sainsburys recently announced profits for 2020 have been "stronger than expected". There has been sharp criticism from politicians and consumer groups of supermarkets, which have collectively received $2.5 billion in extra funding to see them through the pandemic, while continuing to pay dividends to shareholders. 

Meanwhile, retail sales across the eurozone rallied by more than expected last month, thanks to a surge in online shopping. Figures from the EU's statistics office show sales in the 19 countries using the single currency were up 1.5 percent month-on-month in October, with an overall year-on-year increase of 4.3 percent, ahead of analysts' expectations. Internet and mail-order sales have surged by 28.5 percent over the past 12 months.

French drugs giant Sanofi will announce the retail price of the COVID-19 vaccine it is developing with the Britain's GlaxoSmithKline after it has released the results of Phase I/II trials later this month. Sanofi is also developing a vaccine with U.S. company Translate Bio, with clinical human trials expected to start shortly. 

France's service sector has been hit hardest by the recent lockdown, according to the latest data. The influential Purchasing Managers' Index for France fell to 40.6 from 47.5 in October, its worst result since May. The eurozone's third largest economy went back into national lockdown on October 30 but has recently begun easing restrictions. There were similar figures for Germany, but the EU's biggest economy has recorded a far smaller GDP contraction overall as activity has remained strong in the parts of the manufacturing sector not hit by COVID-19. 

Hungary has again said it cannot accept the EU budget in its current form. The government of Viktor Orban has said "there will not be an agreement" if the link to a clause on respecting the rule of law is maintained. Along with Poland, Hungary is using its veto powers to block the disbursement of $2.18 trillion of EU funds, including payments to allow member states to deal with the economic impact of COVID-19, because of conditions attached.  

The oil producers cartel OPEC+ is continuing to work on a compromise plan for production in 2021, after talks earlier this week on how to tackle weak global demand amid the second wave of COVID-19 broke down. The group had been expected to maintain current cuts of 7.7 million barrels per day, or 8 percent of global supplies, until at least March. But hopes for mass-vaccination roll-outs in developed economies have led to several producers to question the ongoing tight rein on supply.

Germany's Deutsche Post says it expects demand from e-commerce to grow its business by half over the Christmas period. Deutsche Post DHL, which is one of the world's biggest post and freight companies, says it is aiming for an overall operating profit of up to $5.3 billion in 2020.

Finland's biggest utility provider Fortum says it plans to develop up to two gigawatts of onshore and solar energy capacity by 2025 with its German subsidiary Uniper. Fortum says the goal for the combined group is carbon neutrality for its entire European energy generation by 2035.

Troubled airline Norwegian Air has floated a new rescue plan to save it from collapse. The carrier, which  applied for bankruptcy protection in an Irish court last month, hopes to raise $454 million by selling off part of its fleet, issuing new shares and holding a debt-for-equity swap on its borrowings. The proposals will be discussed at an extraordinary meeting next month. Only six of the company's 140 aircraft are currently in use.

German airline Lufthansa is increasing capacity as bookings for long-haul and European flights boom over the new year period. The German carrier says demand for destinations including Finland, Namibia, South Africa and the Canary Islands have contributed to a 400 percent rise in sales. 

From February, customers on easyJet flights who wish to use the overhead locker will have to pay a premium on top of their ticket price. Those without will be restricted to bringing a small carry-on bag to be stored under their seat. The new policy, which easyJet says is intended to help improve punctuality, has been met with an angry backlash from customers on social media.

WATCH: "With greater power and social influence should come greater responsibilities," warned European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, at the opening of this year's online Web Summit. Von der Leyen was outlining the vision for the future under the new Digital Services Act, a set of new rules with which the bloc aims to reclaim online sovereignty and become a leader in regulation and content moderation.

Wall Street financier Anthony Scaramucci, who was famously fired after just 10 days in post as White House communications director, joined CGTN Europe this week to talk Trump, tech and what's next for the world markets. Scaramucci discusses why, despite recent volatility, he is going long on cryptocurrency and how sharing the wealth must be the key priority for the next U.S. administration. 

We started by asking him all about that famous Trump bump on the stock markets and the outlook for 2021.  

I've been doing this for 32 years and so I am enjoying the ride. But the flip side is it's never as good as it looks at the top. And, of course, it's never as bad as it looks at the bottom. But I do think with the onset of the vaccinations that are coming, we could see a very good back end of 2020 one into 2022. Of course, the Federal Reserve only has this blunt instrument of lowering rates and creating money supply. And so what ends up happening is people that own assets, they benefit from that because as rates go down, they're the physical gravity of financial assets. It does put pressure on wages and it does make it harder for middle- and lower-income people. So I would really hope that they would combine that strategy with a very aggressive stimulus. And if you did both of those things, then you wouldn't have the diversion that we have right now. 

You're a cryptocurrency fan, aren't you?  What's the lure to you of digital assets? 

 Well, let me just point out that I'm a sceptic of most things, and so when I returned to my organization after my White House firing, I spent about two-and-a-half years researching cryptocurrency, so so it's not like I just waded in blindly. I think I have a much better understanding, or our team does, of how it's operating, why it should be heading into a more mature phase. And I do think it will evolve into an acceptable asset class. There's a lot of different reasons for that. I don't want to bore everybody, but if you really studied the block chain, you more or less have this ledger now that it's almost impossible to break. And that will give people a feeling that there's a store of value in the internet for things like Bitcoin and possibly a coin like an ethereum. So for me, it's more portable than gold. And as it becomes more acceptable, it's an interesting inflation hedge. 

What do you think Donald Trump's real motives are right now? 

He's looking to raise the money, I mean, it's all it's all about a grift and it's a con on the people that are supporting him. And so this nonsense that there was a fraudulent election has been rebuked by the attorney general. It's been rebuked by the Department of Homeland Security. And if you really understand the election process, you take the time to understand it, you can't hack paper ballots ...  I will point out, if he's running in 2024, he's never gotten more than 47 percent of the vote in the two elections that he's run in. And so he would be a very poor choice for the Republicans as their nominee. I don't understand why my fellow Republicans are so afraid of them. 

Do you think he might continue to make a noise from the sidelines after the inauguration? 

We'll have to see where these criminal investigations go as it relates to the Trump organization and him personally. But if if he's able to get himself exonerated from those two things, I believe the answer to that is 'yes'. If he's not able to get exonerated, I think it'll be nearly impossible. But I will also point out that you've got tremendously ambitious politicians that are younger than him in the Republican Party, that on January 1 they will be looking to undermine him.

The latest unemployment figures for the 19 member states that use the single currency show a slight improvement overall in the jobless rate last month. However, economists warn the headline figures mask deep inequalities, with a 3 percent rise in youth unemployment since last year and women continuing to lose out over men. There are also concerns that well-intentioned government furlough schemes may be leading to the rise of so called "zombie" companies, that in normal market circumstances would not survive.