Germany

Germany has saved €100 billion since 2010 because its borrowing costs have fallen during Europe’s debt crisis – savings that outweigh the cost of the crisis to the German economy, an economic think tank has reported, the Irish Times reported. Investors have fled instability in the euro zone for the safety of German bonds since 2010, pushing down interest rates on those bonds. Paying less interest has helped the government save more than 3 per cent of gross domestic product, the Halle-based Leibniz institute for economic research said.

Shares in Dutch engineering services firm Imtech tumbled more than 40 percent on Monday after it said it was trying to preserve as much of its remaining business as possible after its Germany subsidiary, its largest, filed for insolvency last week, Reuters reported. Dutch newspaper de Telegraaf, citing an internal Imtech email, said on Monday that the company had instructed employees to halt payments to suppliers and subcontractors. Imtech spokeswoman Dorien Wietsma declined to comment on the report, repeating that "all options are open" for the company.

Berlin's new international airport could face further delays following the insolvency of Dutch engineering group Royal Imtech's German division which has been working on the project, the airport's operator said on Friday. Imtech Deutschland GmbH & Co filed for insolvency on Thursday after failing to secure credit from lenders, adding to a list of problems at its parent company, whose shares fell more than 40 percent to a record low.

The German unit of Dutch engineering group Royal Imtech NV has filed for insolvency after failing to secure credit from lenders, adding to a list of problems at the parent and sending its shares down over 40 percent to a record low, Reuters reported. The announcement of Imtech Deutschland GmbH & Co's insolvency came hours after the company said it was "considering all options" in the wake of the subsidiary's liquidity crisis.

Yager, the German developer that was dropped from working on Dead Island 2, has filed for insolvency for the team that was working on the game, Breitbart News reported. Timo Ullmann, Yager CEO, said, “The insolvency filing is a direct result from the early termination of the project and helps protecting our staff. In the course of the proceedings, we gain time to sort out the best options for reorganizing this entity.” Ullmann did say that the Dead Island 2 team’s wages are safe for at least several months.

Spiraling German labor costs are starting to undermine the country’s famed competitiveness, threatening to hurt economic growth and investment in Europe’s largest economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. Propelled by a healthy economy and record-low unemployment, labor costs here are rising fast, as the government has further tightened its grip on the labor market, driving up companies’ wage bills.

As negotiations between Greece and its creditors stumbled toward breakdown, culminating in a sound rejection on Sunday by Greek voters of the conditions demanded in exchange for a financial lifeline, a vintage photo resurfaced on the Internet, the International New York Times reported. It shows Hermann Josef Abs, head of the Federal Republic of Germany’s delegation in London on Feb. 27, 1953, signing the agreement that effectively cut the country’s debts to its foreign creditors in half. It is an image that still resonates today.

Frankfurt prosecutors are examining the role played by individuals connected with Deutsche Bank’s involvement in the Libor rate-rigging scandal – potentially opening up a new front in the affair that has rocked Germany’s biggest bank. The investigation is the first step in a procedure that could lead to criminal charges, the Irish Times reported. The prosecutors’ investigation stems from a report by the German financial watchdog BaFin, details of which were revealed by the Financial Times on Friday.

Germany's finance ministry denied a report on Saturday that its officials were working on a plan to allow an orderly debt restructuring for any country that becomes insolvent, Reuters reported. German magazine Der Spiegel had reported that Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble asked officials to draft plans for a system of debt restructuring for any insolvent country so that it could stay in the euro. Greece is negotiating for loans in exchange for reforms so that it can repay debts due in the coming weeks and avoid default.

Leading German industrialists have sounded the alarm over the European Central Bank’s move to drive down interest rates, warning that cheap money is causing volatility and could create “another bubble”, the Financial Times reported. Wolfgang Buechele, chief executive of Linde, the industrial gas and plant engineering group, told the Financial Times: “You hear from national bankers and the ECB that we have to focus in the future on managing bubbles.