Germany

Germany's trade surplus with the United States reached a record level, data from the statistics office showed, as countries wait to learn how U.S. President Donald Trump will impose tariffs on imported goods, Reuters reported. Germany's trade surplus with the U.S. expanded to 70 billion euros ($72 billion) in 2024, well above the previous record of 63.3 billion euros reported for the full year 2023. "It would be hard to imagine worse timing," said Holger Goerg, from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW).

Europe is prepared to act in response to possible restrictions to trade, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Monday, after holding discussions with industry lobbies and the EU's top trade representative about the threat of tariffs from the U.S., Reuters reported. "Europe must and can only react unitedly and decisively to unilateral trade restrictions. And we are prepared for this," Habeck said in a statement.

Industrial production in Germany sank in December, driven by a fall in output from the car industry, a further weak note for the troubled sector as it faces the threat of U.S. tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reported. Output declined 2.4% on month in December, German statistics agency Destatis said Friday. Production fell 4.5% in 2024 as a whole. The fall in December, more than offsetting the 1.3% growth in November, was driven by auto production, which contracted 10%.

Gerresheimer AG, the German maker of packaging for drugs and cosmetics, is exploring a potential sale amid interest from private equity funds, Bloomberg News reported. Dusseldorf-based Gerresheimer is working with advisers to gauge interest from possible buyers asking not to be identified because the information is private. Shares of Gerresheimer jumped as much as 15% in German trading on Friday, giving the company a market value of about €2.7 billion ($2.8 billion). Warburg Pincus, EQT AB and KKR & Co. are among suitors that have been studying the business.

German photovoltaic solutions provider Tauber-Solar said on Tuesday that it has taken over the insolvent German business of Austria's Encome Energy Performance, strengthening its services in the photovoltaic and battery storage sector, RenewablesNow.com reported. Effective from February 1, Tauber-Solar has assumed the operating and maintenance (O&M) activities of Encome Energy Performance Deutschland GmbH. The asset deal covers 150 O&M contracts for over 360 PV systems and includes the transfer of 28 employees.

German inflation remained elevated, reminding the European Central Bank that caution is still needed as it continues to lower interest rates, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 2.8% from a year ago in January, matching December’s pace. The report follows weaker-than—anticipated figures earlier Friday from France, which prompted traders to ramp up bets on monetary loosening.

Germany’s unemployment rate crept higher in January with manufacturing layoffs gathering steam, reflecting just one of the growing economic challenges facing the next government after upcoming elections, the Wall Street Journal reported. The adjusted unemployment rate in Europe’s largest economy was 6.2% this month, data from the Federal Employment Agency said Friday, up from the 6.1% of December. Registered job vacancies stood at 632,000, around 66,000 fewer than the same point last year. Jobless claims ticked up 11,000 in January, a tad more than the 10,000 of December.

Germany’s financial regulator plans to ask the country’s insurers if they grasp the risk of investments they have made in direct loans and private credit funds after a search for yield in the previous decade, Bloomberg News reported. Insurers’ management of risks from private debt and other alternative assets will be a special focus of BaFin’s assessment this year of their investment behavior, Mark Branson, who leads the watchdog, told reporters in Frankfurt on Jan. 28.

German carmakers and their suppliers have announced tens of thousands of job cuts. Germany’s manufacturing industry, the world’s third largest, has shrunk steadily for seven years. And Germany’s economy as a whole has contracted for the past two years, marking only the second back-to-back annual contraction in records dating back to 1951, according to Germany’s federal statistics agency, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gross domestic product has roughly flatlined since 2019, before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic—the longest period of stagnation since the end of World War II.