Germany

The number of German companies filing for insolvency fell last year to the lowest level on record thanks to a prolonged upswing in Europe's biggest economy although the amount of creditor claims rose nearly 60 percent, data showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Just 21,518 companies registered for insolvency in 2016, down 7 percent in the seventh consecutive annual drop in numbers and the fewest since insolvency rules changed in 1999, the Federal Statistics Office said in a statement.

Volkswagen AG sought to draw a line under the diesel scandal that has locked it in crisis mode for more than a year, with sweeping restructuring efforts starting to take hold and profitability improving at the namesake car brand, Bloomberg News reported. While Chief Executive Officer Matthias Mueller acknowledged Tuesday that emissions lawsuits will continue to preoccupy the automaker for many years, he said the company is “back on track” and in a position to push ahead with tackling an “epochal shift” in the auto industry.

Swiss commodities trading group ECOM has agreed to buy the factory of German cocoa grinder Euromar Commodities GmbH which declared insolvency in December, Euromar's insolvency administrator said on Monday, Reuters reported. ECOM plans to resume production at Euromar's plant at Fehrbellin near Berlin, insolvency administrator Rolf Rattunde said in a statement. No one was available for comment at ECOM's Swiss head office. Rattunde said a sale contract for Euromar's factory, equipment and site has been signed with ECOM and approved by Euromar's interim committee of creditors.

For European leaders struggling to contain hostility to globalisation, few things can be as unwelcome as a cross-border takeover threatening mass lay-offs in a treasured industry, the Financial Times reported. When the industry in question is car making — so often a symbol of national pride or decline — the stakes are even higher. Yet despite the disquiet felt in Germany and the UK at PSA’s purchase of Opel, both countries need to accept the logic of consolidation in a sector where politicians have too often intervened to protect jobs at the expense of long-term competitiveness.

Deutsche Bank is planning to raise capital, list its asset management unit and realign its divisions as it seeks to reinvent itself after spending about two years dealing with past misdeeds and massive losses, Reuters reported. Germany's flagship lender plans an 8 billion euro ($8.50 billion) rights issue, due to be launched on March 20, it said on Sunday, as it seeks to repair its balance sheet in the wake of a 15 billion euro legal bill incurred since 2012.

The emergence of Martin Schulz as the centre-left Social Democrats’ candidate for chancellor has fundamentally altered the dynamics of German politics, the Financial Times reported. It is also changing the debate in Germany on inequality and the future of Europe in ways that will have a significant impact across the continent. Germany is regarded as an economic success story. Unemployment is at its lowest level since reunification in 1990; the trade surplus has reached a record high.

Investors just can’t get enough of Germany’s short-dated debt. The yield on Germany’s two-year bond has fallen to another record negative low this morning as bondholders snap up German assets amid escalating fears about the EU’s political stability, the Financial Times reported. Dubbed one of the “most sought after assets in financial markets“, the price on Germany’s two-year “schatz” bond has been pushed to an all-time high this week, driving yields head-long towards the minus 1 per cent mark.

Germany has posted its highest budget surplus since reunification in 1991, inviting fresh scrutiny over whether the eurozone’s largest economy should do more to increase spending and redress global economic imbalances, the Financial Times reported. Germany’s statistical office on Thursday reported the country was in the black by €23.7bn last year, with local, state and central government coffers benefiting from record-low unemployment and ultra-cheap debt finance stemming from the European Central Bank’s mass purchases of sovereign bonds.

Germany on Monday voiced support for Greece to stay in the euro zone and the European Commission dispatched a senior official to Athens to persuade it to take on further reforms to salvage its bailout accord, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, meanwhile, remained firm that as a lender the IMF could not cut any special deals for the crisis-hit country, which has received three bailouts since 2010.

Greece and its lenders should quickly approve a review of reforms the indebted country must take in return for unlocking new loans, a senior European Union official said on Sunday, warning of financial instability in the euro zone if the issue lingers, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. "Now is not the time to turn the clocks back to financial instability," Valdis Dombrovskis, vice president of the European Commission and the EU's financial services chief, told Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper.