"Inditex has managed to deliver a sophisticated integration of physical and virtual stores, which has been crucial in boosting profitability. The fact that [it] still managed to ring up ... net sales is no mean feat, when so many of its stores were shuttered for weeks at a time."

Those were the words of Susannah Streeter, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, pointing out that while profits fell 70 percent at the Spanish retail giant last year, the parent company if fashion giant Zara has been saved from worse results by a phenomenal jump in online sales. 

Fashion has been one of the retail sectors worst affected by the COVID-19 lockdown, but our graph shows the COVID-19 pandemic has changed consumer habits right across the sales spectrum.

Elsewhere, lawmakers in the U.S. are poised to vote on the planned $1.9 trillion stimulus package, the flagship policy of the new Biden administration. If it goes ahead, it will be the biggest peacetime spike in U.S. public spending.

Troubled lender Greensill Capital is still seeking a potential buyer for its business, as governments across Europe get nervous about the domino effect on jobs in the "real" economy.   

We speak to one analyst who warns there are shades of the collapse of Lehman Brothers at the start of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis in what is happening at Greensill.

Read on for more of the days business news in full. 

Louise Greenwood 

Digital correspondent 

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Online sales at the parent group of Spain's Zara fashion chain boomed 77 percent to $7.9 billion in the 12 months to the end of January, as the firm revealed that profits overall were down 70 percent to $1.3 billion. Inditex said that as the COVID-19 pandemic has changed shopping behavior among its core customer base, the firm has reached a target to get 25 percent of revenue from e-commerce two years earlier than planned. 

Cathay Pacific Airways has reported a record annual loss of $2.8 billion for 2020. The result compares with a profit of $220 million in 2019, with cargo again proving the most profitable area of business for the carrier. The airline's chairman Patrick Healy has warned "the short-term outlook continues to be challenging" with the cost of a major restructuring exercise also dragging on growth. 

Meanwhile, the UK government has promised a review of air passenger duty on domestic flights to help bolster to country's troubled aviation sector. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has signaled his support for lower tax rates on internal flights and an exemption on return journeys as part of a wider transport review. 

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to approve President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus program later on Wednesday. The vote will follow two hours of debate on Capitol Hill, with many Republican senators still arguing that the proposals,  which include a one-off direct payment of $1,400 to most Americans, plus $350 billion in aid to state and local governments, are too costly.  

Troubled lender Greensill Capital is continuing to seek a potential buyer as talks with a U.S. private equity group appear to have failed. Apollo Global Management has halted negotiations to buy parts of Greensill due to disagreements with the group's technology provider. Greensill, which counts Japan's SoftBank among its backers, filed for insolvency on Monday after two of its key investors, the insurer Tokio Marine and the banking group Credit Suisse, withdrew support.

GFG Alliance, the industrial group owned by magnate Sanjeev Gupta, is seeking to renegotiate its debts with Greensill amid growing concerns about job losses in Europe's steel industry. Gupta is understood to be seeking new sources of finance to avoid administration and a fire sale of assets at the firm. GFG Alliance employs 45,000 people globally including 5,500 people in the UK steel industry.

Italy's government is preparing to unveil a $12 billion labor market support package as COVID-19 continues to weigh on the economy. The new jobs plan, the first piece of legislation drafted by Prime Minister Mario Draghi's administration, could be ready as early as this week and is expected to include extending a ban on redundancies in the services sector until the end of the year. 

Annual losses at the food delivery group Just Eat Takeaway rose to $179 million in 2020, up from $136 million a year before. The group said the figure reflects its investment in growing market share in a highly competitive space.

Shares in electric vehicle giant Tesla have surged by nearly a fifth, rebounding from a deep sell-off earlier this week, after new data showed an increase in sales in China. The Silicon Valley giant posted its biggest daily gain in a year on Tuesday, adding more than $100 billion to Tesla's market capitalization, amid ongoing volatility in its price.

The tech-heavy NASDAQ exchange has also bounced back after losses earlier this week, gaining 4 percent on Tuesday as investors retreat from the troubled bond sector and look for bargains in corporate stock.  

The world's biggest asset manager BlackRock says 17 percent of its business is now deemed "sustainable," meeting EU environmental, social, and governance rules. The investment giant says 70 percent of funds launched or repositioned in Europe this year will meet new EU standards on sustainable finance.  

Swedish lithium battery maker Northvolt is buying the U.S. start-up Cuberg to boost the range of electric vehicles that can use its batteries. Cuberg claims its battery cells deliver a 60 percent capacity premium over comparable lithium-ion cells. The firm counts aircraft maker Boeing among its customers. 

German sportswear maker Adidas has predicted a strong turnaround in sales this year, with growing demand in China and South America. The multinational, which is currently selling off its loss-making Reebok brand, says online sales grew 43 percent in the fourth quarter, offsetting losses from closed stores in Europe, while sales overall were revenue neutral, up 1 percent at $6.59 billion.

Sales of Lego have boomed in lockdown, growing 13 percent to $6.98 billion last year amid strong global demand. The Danish toymaker says online sales and new developments such as Lego robots that can be programmed to move about by mobile phone have contributed to a 19 percent rise in operating profits. 

Italian luxury goods group Salvatore Ferragamo says growth in China is powering business after announcing its first operating loss since listing on Milan's stock exchange 10 years ago. The brand famed for its shoes, which have been worn by film icons including Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, has been hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis closing many of its most profitable airport outlets. Sales were down by a third in 2020, while the firm says it expects double-digit growth in China this year, also revealing an 86 percent jump in digital sales in the first nine weeks of 2021. 

UK supermarket chain Tesco is rolling out recycling points for soft plastic packaging in its stores. The company, which is aiming to establish a nationwide collection point for items such as crisp packets, pet food pouches and bread bags amid a push for a greener agenda, says these harder-to-process plastics will be used in new packaging for food, household items, and beauty products.

Marks & Spencer is considering redevelopment plans for its flagship West End store that may mean the partial demolition of its famous Marble Arch site. The proposals include changing the existing 89-year-old building by halving the retail area and replacing several floors with office space.

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The collapse of the lender Greensill Capital has rattled governments across Europe, with corporate borrowers now facing a funding crisis that threatens jobs. The UK's third-largest steelmaker Liberty Steel says Greensill's demise "creates a challenging situation" as talks with unions continue over the future of 5,000 jobs. 

CGTN Europe spoke to Justin Urquhart-Stewart of Seven Investment Management, who told us how the boss behind Liberty Steel, GFG Alliance's Sanjeev Gupta, is affected. 

He was able to actually buy up assets quite cheaply and also get government guarantees as well. We've seen that certainly in Europe and to be able to carry on, but he needed cash flow bill – cash continuously going through the system. That's why, therefore, a company like Greensill coming in offering their invoices being discounted, gives you cash immediately, albeit at a cost. 

What went wrong with the business model ?

We used to call it 'factoring' and it's merely discounting an invoice. So whoever is selling the goods can actually get that money a little bit quicker. A lesser charge, of course. But if you do that on an industrial scale and then take it to another stage, in that you're not just discounting the invoices which have already been written up, but the ones for next year and the year after, then you are actually creating something that is very useful for the company, but actually getting more and more complicated. And because this industry isn't properly regulated like a bank, that's why they're known as shadow banks ... therefore they were not properly regulated. 

Could this be as bad as the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the 2008 Global Financial Crisis? 

This has got enormous areas of commonality with the likes of Lehman and the sub-prime crisis, because it wasn't just a matter of saying, "well, I don't understand what the products are or how they work," it wasn't just a matter of just the regulators who didn't understand, which they didn't, but also the fact that they were putting these these invoice structures into bonds and then selling those bonds into the market, just as we saw with sub-prime. And where do those bonds go? They go to pension providers. So you and I and anybody else who may have a long-term savings scheme would have bonds in [Greensill]. And like those, the same sort of those mortgage bonds, there would be some of them that are poisonous and good money does not survive bad money. 

And finally, Zara may be at the sharp end of changes in consumer spending during the pandemic, but analysts say almost all retail sectors are suffering. They add that some changes will likely last long after virus has been eradicated.