Germany has started preparations for a potential halt in Russian gas deliveries as concerns intensify amid a dispute over payment terms, Bloomberg News reported. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday that preparations to limit Germany’s exposure to Russian energy imports were under way even before President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. While Russian coal is already being phased out, gas is more difficult, he said in Tokyo after talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

German inflation hit its highest level in more than four decades in April, pushed higher by natural gas and mineral oil products that have significantly increased in price since Russia's attack on Ukraine, Reuters reported. Consumer prices, harmonised to make them comparable with inflation data from other European Union countries (HICP), rose an annual 7.8%, a rise from March's 7.6%, the Federal Statistics Office said on Thursday. The inflation reading from Germany, the biggest euro zone economy, precedes data on Friday for the whole 19-country bloc.

Germany is preparing for a change of control at the PCK refinery in Schwedt operated by Russian state-owned Rosneft (ROSN.MM) that accounts for all of Germany's remaining Russian oil imports, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Germany has set out plans to become independent of Russian oil, which would make a European Union oil embargo manageable for Europe's biggest economy. It has reduced the proportion of oil it sources from Russia to 12% from 35%, leaving PCK the only remaining consumer of Russian oil in the country.

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.