German’s growth outlook – mixed, not nixed
German industrial production fell 0.8 per cent in September, according to the Berlin economics ministry, which was a bigger drop than analysts expected. After Friday’s disappointing orders data, the...
View ArticleWhat Germany really thinks about Ireland
If Dublin successfully avoids using the European Union’s rescue fund to resolve its banking and fiscal problems, it will probably win friends in Berlin. Germany’s exact view on what Ireland should do...
View ArticleA (gloomy) alternative German view
Berlin’s approach – and that of the European Central Bank – to handling the eurozone crisis, has come under strong attack from Peter Bofinger, economics professor at Würzburg university and an...
View ArticleThe German consumer mood
German consumer optimism has brightened further. The GfK research organisation in Nuremberg estimates its “consumer climate” index will rise again in February, reaching a level last seen in the second...
View ArticleWaiting for the German consumer
Waiting for a German consumer boom is like… contributions welcome for the most appropriate metaphor. Whatever the comparison, it is not happening yet. Disappointingly for those hoping for a...
View ArticleGermany bucks the house price trend
Shock news in the Bundesbank’s latest monthly bulletin: German house prices have gone up. The more-or-less flat profile of residential property prices over the past decade has been one of the defining...
View ArticleEuro worries send Germans shopping
Maybe the eurozone debt crisis has had an unexpected, beneficial side-effect – getting the Germans to go shopping? German consumers’ propensity to spend saw a surprise rise this month, according to...
View ArticleGerman growth and an energy loss
Were Germany’s second quarter growth figures “too bad to be true”? GDP rose by a mere 0.1 per cent compared with the previous quarter, the country’s statistical office has just confirmed. When the...
View ArticleBuba’s softening on inflation
Seldom are statements of the obvious as significant as the Bundesbank’s comments yesterday that Germany might well have to tolerate higher inflation than the rest of the eurozone in the coming years....
View ArticleMario Draghi at the ECB press conference
Welcome to a live blog of Mario Draghi’s press conference from ECB HQ in Frankfurt. With rates held and Mr Draghi already having worried investors with his remarks on Wednesday about a slowing German...
View ArticleYou can take my Pfennigs, but the cent stays
Small change Search the pockets, wallets, purses, car cigarette ashtrays and homes of anyone in (almost) any eurozone country and you are likely to find significant heaps of small, brown...
View ArticleLuxembourg attacks Germany
When Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, next meets his European counterparts, will he be heaped with praise – or brickbats? Germany’s economy is on a roll. It grew by 2.2 per cent in the...
View ArticleGermany, the wrong way up
With Europe’s performance hanging largely on the fate of Germany, it is hardly surprising that any fresh news from the continent’s largest economy. But some indicators are more useful than others. The...
View ArticleGermans go to town
What did German consumers do at the height of the crisis over eurozone public finances earlier this year? A good many went shopping, according to the country’s statistical office. A detailed breakdown...
View ArticleSteinbrück sees Greece rescheduling
Another book is published on the economic crisis. This time it is Peer Steinbrück, the former German finance minister, who is promoting his memoirs, entitled “Unterm Strich” (“The bottom line”). Berlin...
View ArticleGermans’ expanding pay packets
Germany’s exports get all the attention, but are we missing something more interesting about the recovery in Europe’s biggest economy? The country’s statistical office has just release figures for real...
View ArticleECB: why the Fed has it easy
Since the launch of the euro in 1999, economists have debated whether a “one-size-fits-all” monetary policy can work for so many economies; Estonia’s entry from January will take eurozone membership to...
View ArticlePMI data present German puzzle
First, Germany leads the euro area to a jump in GDP in Q2. Then, just a month later, a sharp fall in Germany’s PMI leads a drop in the index for the eurozone as a whole. The Purchasing Managers’ Index...
View ArticleStuttgart, stimulus… and Greece
Greece’s government faces angry protests over budget cuts; Germany’s faces them when it spends a lot of money. According to Bloomberg, Angela Merkel, chancellor, has just renewed her support for the...
View ArticleVienna worries about bonds… and the US
Ewald Nowotny, Austria’s central bank governor, appears to have gone slightly off-message in an interview with WirtschaftsWoche, the German business magazine. The European Central Bank was seeking to...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....