Germany

German business confidence has picked up slightly this month after plunging in March following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a survey showed Monday, the Associated Press reported. The Ifo institute said its monthly confidence index, a closely watched indicator for Europe’s biggest economy, rose to 91.8 points in April from 90.8 in March — stabilizing after a nearly eight-point fall last month. Business managers’ outlook for the next six months improved, but their assessment of the current situation was only marginally better than in March.

The German government is set to hike its inflation forecast for this year to 6.1% due to the impact of the war in Ukraine, up from 3.3% it had forecast in January, according to government document seen by Reuters on Monday. Berlin, which is due to present its spring economic forecasts on Wednesday, sees consumer price growth easing to 2.8% in 2023, the document showed.

German exchange operator Deutsche Boerse raised its full-year targets on Monday as it reported better-than-expected quarterly results thanks to higher trading activity amid Russia's war in Ukraine, Reuters reported. Due to the uncertainty on the market, demand for hedging in almost all asset classes rose and boosted trading volumes especially in index derivatives and commodities including energy and gas products, Deutsche Boerse said. "The first quarter of 2022 was considerably above our expectations," Chief Financial Officer Gregor Pottmeyer said in a statement.

Germany’s Finance Minister Christian Lindner highlighted the risk of stagflation as the country faces up to the economic perils posed by the conflict in Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported. “The danger of stagflation is real,” he said Saturday in a virtual speech at a party conference of his liberal Free Democrats, referring to the risk of rapidly rising inflation hitting as economic growth drops.

Germany will increase borrowing plans by nearly 40 billion euros ($43 billion) this year to cushion the effect of the war in Ukraine, taking the total for net new debt to almost 140 billion euros, Bloomberg News reported. The adjustment is needed to help finance a range of government measures designed to offset the economic impact of the war and surging energy prices on companies and consumers, said the people, speaking on condition of anonymity before the fiscal plan is presented to the cabinet on Wednesday.

Germany’s employers and unions have joined together in opposing an immediate European Union ban on natural gas imports from Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, saying such a move would lead to factory shutdowns and the loss of jobs in the bloc’s largest economy, the Associated Press reported.

People on the streets of Berlin have waved Ukrainian flags in demonstrations of support since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. But those who drove to the rallies did so largely in cars powered by oil from Russia, which provides most of the fuel to the German capital, Reuters reported. Just over a third of Germany's crude oil came from Russia last year, official data shows. Until the invasion of Ukraine in February, the dependence of Europe's largest economy on cheap energy from Russia – in part, a legacy of the Cold War – was not viewed as problematic by the authorities.

Germany's energy network regulator on Friday said it would ensure ongoing operations at Gazprom Germania, a trading, storage and transmission business abandoned by Russia's Gazprom, and called on market operators not to cut ties, Reuters reported. With assets and subsidiaries in Germany, Britain, Switzerland, Belgium, the Czech Republic and outside Europe, the firm's activities are essential for the European gas market and its supply to industry and households.

A company accused by German authorities of supplying authoritarian countries such as Turkey, Egypt and Myanmar with trojan software that could be used to eavesdrop on dissidents has shut down operations and filed for insolvency, the Bloomberg reported. FinFisher GmbH sold spyware to law enforcement and intelligence agencies that allows users to access address books, chat messages, photographs and videos on targeted smartphones as well as listen in on telephone conversations.

Germany released a report on Friday showing that the country was cutting its dependence on Russian energy sooner than many thought possible, the New York Times reported. Robert Habeck, the vice chancellor and economic minister, said Germany expected to cut its imports of Russian oil in half by the midsummer and nearly end the imports by end of this year. The need for Russian coal could be halved in “the coming weeks,” he said. And he estimated that Germany could be free of Russian gas by the middle of 2024, if all goes well.