Germany

Despite a drumbeat of optimistic forecasts from economists and upbeat statements from various European leaders, the actual news on the economy continues to be grim, with figures released Tuesday showing that Germany, the Continent’s flagship economy, contracted by about 0.5 percent in the final months of last year, the International Herald Tribune reported. Combined with a flurry of disappointing results recently in other major economies, the stumble raised questions about Europe’s ability to escape recession.

Cyprus's hopes of agreeing a eurozone bailout were thrown into fresh confusion on Wednesday as German politicians from across the spectrum warned that the aid package could be vetoed by the Bundestag, The Guardian reported. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, is taking a hard line on Cyprus, saying the country must agree to wideranging economic reforms and privatisations before she would support a bailout. Negotiations between the Cyprus government and international lenders have stalled, with the Communist president, Dimitris Christofias, refusing to accept asset sales.

While German industry has enjoyed record export and profit growth, ordinary Germans have not had much economic joy over the past 13 years, The Guardian reported in a commentary. As Charles Dumas of Lombard Street Research has demonstrated, real personal disposable income per capita rose by just over 7% from 1998 to 2011, compared to growth of 13% for Spain and around or over 18% for Britain, France and the US. German income growth lagged behind almost all OECD countries; only Italy and Japan performed worse.

German unemployment increased less than economists forecast in December even as Europe’s debt crisis curbed company investment and economic growth, Bloomberg News reported today. The number of people out of work rose a seasonally adjusted 3,000 to 2.942 million, the Nuremberg-based Federal Labor Agency said today. Germany's economy, Europe’s largest, may have contracted markedly in the fourth quarter after the euro area's succumbed to recession, the Bundesbank said on Dec. 17.

The local court in Amberg, Germany, has ordered debtor-in-possession proceedings in accordance with section 270b of the German Insolvency Code (Insolvenzordnung) for SiC Processing GmbH, a Germany-based provider of solar slurry recovery services, AER-Online reported on Monday. The company's Norwegian subsidiary filed for insolvency earlier this month after its only customer, REC Wafer Norway, filed its own insolvency application during the summer. For SiC Processing GmbH, the court has appointed Dr. Hubert Ampferl, a partner at Nuremberg, Germany-based law firm Dr.

Photon Europe, the German publisher of several solar energy magazines and websites, has filed for insolvency, Recharge reported. A district court in the Western German city of Aachen has opened preliminary insolvency proceedings and appointed lawyer André Seckler as administrator, Photon says in a statement. Under German insolvency rules, he has three months to bring new investors on board to save the publisher, which has 140 employees. Seckler plans to keep it going in the meantime.

A German maker of yachts and naval vessels agreed to buy insolvent shipyard Peene in a rare deal as the shipbuilding sector in Europe's biggest economy crumbles, Reuters reported. Bremen, Germany-based Luerssen Group is paying less than 20 million euros ($26.3 million) to buy former Communist East Germany's biggest naval shipbuilder, Peene's insolvency administrator Berthold Brinkmann said on Monday. The deal to buy Peene - which makes patrol boats for the coast guard and oil spill response vessels, among other - will make Luerssen Germany's biggest maker of naval surface vessels.

Germany on Wednesday evening agreed to lay the foundations for a eurozone banking union but warned that creating a common bank supervisor must not raise “very dangerous” expectations of Berlin helping to bail out foreign banks, the Financial Times reported. In a pivotal move that is likely to clear the way for the European Central Bank to take oversight of the euro area’s biggest financial institutions from national supervisors, Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, said he was willing to compromise on some of his longstanding objections to the scheme.

Perrot GmbH & Co. has been making bell-tower clocks for 150 years, but the order from Saudi Arabia was on a new scale: a 140-foot-diameter clock, installed at a height of more than 1,300 feet, in the heart of the holy city of Mecca. The family-owned company from the Black Forest is building its exports beyond its traditional European base, expanding ties with fast-growing developing countries.

Düsseldorf private real estate group WGF has filed for insolvency in the form of debtor in possession – management remains but under court-appointed supervision - after reporting a €71m loss for 2011. A delay in publication of 2011 accounts has led to its bonds being suspended earlier this week, Property Investor Europe reported. The losses derived from strategic disinvestments and balance sheet measures, especially asset revaluations, WGF said in a statement announcing the insolvency application.