Germany plans to give the transportation of materials and equipment essential for energy production priority on the country's rail networks should water levels on the Rhine fall further and hamper shipping by river, a draft decree shows, Reuters reported. DB Netz, the rail network arm of railway operator Deutsche Bahn, has already rejigged usage conditions to give preference to trains carrying mineral oil products and hard coal for power generators as Germany tackles an energy crisis.

Cryptocurrency exchange Nuri GmbH has filed for insolvency in Berlin, according to a court filing, CoinDesk.com reported. The platform, previously called Bitwala, was founded in 2015. Nuri said the sell-off in the crypto market coupled with the collapse of Celsius Network ultimately led to the decision. The price of bitcoin (BTC) has fallen from $69,000 to as low as $17,000 over the past nine months, with several key companies in the industry struggling to keep afloat. Bitcoin was recently trading around $23,000.

The economic situation is deteriorating and the outlook is fragile in Germany, Europe's largest economy, its finance minister said on Wednesday, defending his plans to raise income tax thresholds in response to soaring inflation, Reuters reported. The German economy stagnated in the second quarter, with the war in Ukraine, soaring energy prices, the pandemic and supply disruptions bringing it to the edge of a downturn. Inflation is running at 8.5%.

Germany's economy will lose more than 260 billion euros ($265 billion) in added value by 2030 due to the Ukraine war and high energy prices, spelling negative effects for the labour market, according to a study by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Reuters reported. In comparison with expectations for a peaceful Europe, Germany's price-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) will be 1.7% lower next year and there will be about 240,000 fewer people in employment, said the study published on Tuesday.

The German government will have to amend its energy security law again in September as its gas levy cannot yet be imposed on all consumers, including those with fixed prices contracts, government and parliamentary sources told Reuters on Wednesday. A gas levy, which had been set to come into force from October, was envisaged as a tool to collect funds from all gas consumers to support ailing gas importers that are struggling with soaring prices due to falling Russian gas export flows.

German retail sales fell at the largest annual rate since records began in 1994, highlighting the scale of the economic challenges facing the eurozone’s largest economy, the Financial Times reported. Retail sales volumes dropped 8.8 per cent in June compared with the same month last year, data from Destatis, the German office for national statistics, showed on Monday.

Germany’s annual inflation rate has declined slightly for the second consecutive month, official data showed Thursday, but July’s pace of 7.5% was still within sight of the nearly half-century high it reached in May, the Associated Press reported. Inflation in Europe’s biggest economy rose 7.9% in May from a year earlier, the highest level since the early 1970s, before slipping to 7.6% last month. The preliminary monthly figure for July, reported Thursday by the Federal Statistical Office, is usually confirmed in a final report about two weeks later.

Germany’s economy hasn’t grown for nearly five years. Its recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic has been weaker than any major advanced economy. Its ability to fill its energy needs is in question. And now the country once known as the economic engine of Europe is teetering on the brink of a recession, the Wall Street Journal reported. It’s a sharp turn of fortunes for Germany’s large manufacturing sector, which flourished over the past two decades just as other Western nations saw industrial jobs migrate to Asia.

Germany's state Economic Stabilisation Fund (ESF) has cut its stake in Deutsche Lufthansa to less than 10%, the Federal Finance Agency said on Wednesday, citing stabler conditions at the group, Reuters reported. The ESF took a 20% holding in Lufthansa as part of a government bailout to keep the airline afloat through the COVID-19 pandemic, and had previously reduced the share to 14.1%. The further reduction came "against the backdrop of Lufthansa's stable corporate development", the agency said.

Deutsche Lufthansa said that it was canceling more than 1,000 flights ahead of a one-day walkout by ground staff scheduled for Wednesday, just as families across Germany head off on their summer holidays, Reuters reported. Strikes and staff shortages have already forced airlines including Lufthansa to cancel thousands of flights and caused hours-long queues at major airports, frustrating holidaymakers keen to travel after COVID-19 related lockdowns.