German exports slid in September at the fastest pace since late last year, hit by declining demand among its crisis-wracked euro zone trading partners, Reuters reported. Imports also fell, adding to evidence that the crisis is inflicting a heavy toll on the currency bloc's largest economy. The trade figures come after a string of disappointing data for Europe's economic powerhouse. Business sentiment has worsened, the private sector has contracted, joblessness has risen and industrial orders have fallen at their sharpest rate in a year.

German regulator BaFin has asked Deutsche Bank AG and at least 14 other banks to draw up emergency blueprints for restructuring during a crisis, Reuters reported. The plans form part of a global effort by regulators to avoid multi-billion taxpayer bailouts of distressed lenders and prevent any one lender from causing a systemic crisis for the entire financial system. "The aim is to get banks and regulators thinking about emergency plans," BaFin executive Raimund Roeseler said on Friday.

Leading German politicians are rejecting calls for a restructuring of Greek debt that would lead to a direct loss for German taxpayers, but they are keeping the door open to other manners of reducing Greece's unsustainable debt load, including a debt-buyback program, The Wall Street Journal reported. Greece's private-sector lenders, who agreed to take losses on their investments in a massive restructuring of Greek debt, have refused to accept another so-called haircut on their holdings.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble suggested on Wednesday that his country may be prepared to show flexibility on Greece's fulfilment of its bailout terms if there are obstacles that are beyond Greece's control, Reuters reported. Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said earlier on Wednesday that Athens had been given additional time by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to implement new austerity measures.

The European Union summit that ended Friday suggested Germany and France, always awkward partners in managing the three-year-old euro crisis, are increasingly at odds over how to resolve it, The Wall Street Journal reported. The summit produced a tortuous compromise between the currency bloc's two biggest nations over the creation of a new euro-zone banking supervisor, but it also brought simmering disagreements between Berlin and Paris into the open.

Germany is proposing to toughen Greece’s access to international aid by setting up an escrow account outside its reach to guarantee payments of interest and debt to creditors, a government official said, Bloomberg reported. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who suggested that Greece will get more aid even while struggling to meet the conditions, wants a lasting solution to the country’s debt crisis to restore confidence in financial markets, the official, who asked not to be named, told reporters.

German ship owners have called for a state bailout as the sector continues to struggle with overcapacity, rising fuel costs and hard-pressed banks pulling back from lending to the industry, Reuters reported. The global shipping crisis has hit Germany particularly hard because the euro zone's biggest economy is also home to the biggest fleet of container ships, accounting for 1,800 of the 5,000 vessels worldwide. Between 500 and 700 German-owned vessels are facing liquidity problems, an industry source said, and about 100 have already gone bust.

High-level splits over the handling of the eurozone crisis burst into the open on Thursday when Germany’s finance minister rebuked the head of the International Monetary Fund after she warned that EU leaders should ease demands for tighter austerity in peripheral economies, the Financial Times reported. Wolfgang Schäuble said Christine Lagarde had appeared to contradict the IMF’s own stance in advocating an easing of austerity, noting that the fund had “time and again” warned that high debt levels threatened economic growth.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, making her first visit to Athens since Europe's debt crisis began in late 2009, on Tuesday said she saw "light at the end of the tunnel" for Greece as the debt-stricken country battles through a painful austerity program aimed at restoring its fiscal health, The Wall Street Journal reported. Ms.

Spain is ready to request a euro zone bailout for its public finances as early as next weekend but Germany has signaled that it should hold off, European officials said on Monday. The latest twist in the euro zone's three-year-old sovereign debt crisis comes as financial markets and some other European partners are pressuring Madrid to seek a rescue program that would trigger European Central Bank buying of its bonds, Reuters reported. "The Spanish were a bit hesitant but now they are ready to request aid," a senior European source said.