The economy of Germany, Europe’s headline performer, slowed to a virtual standstill over the past three months, according to new figures released Tuesday, a further blow to international efforts to contain the financial crisis on the continent, The Washington Post reported. The discouraging news came just hours before German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for closer European coordination in setting economic policy and new steps to impose discipline on governments whose lax budget practices prompted the debt crisis.

New steps to save the euro are raising anxiety levels among Germany's influential economic policy establishment, which sees them as an existential threat to the principles that helped raise the country from the ashes of World War Two, Reuters reported. Many saw Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision last month to let the euro zone rescue fund buy the bonds of vulnerable member states on the open market as a step toward a "transfer union," in which Germans are forced to pay for the sins of others.

One of the most common catchphrases in the consulting business is that there are opportunities to be found in every crisis, Spiegel Online reported. The global financial crisis of 2008 indeed provided the German economy with the chance to shine. German businesses enjoyed stronger growth than most rivals once the worst of the crisis was over. Germany emerged as a world champion of the economic rebound. But is the worst truly over? With its downgrading of the United States' top credit rating on Friday, Standard & Poor's triggered fears that we may be facing a double-dip recession.

Germany has long sat at the center of the European economy, but Europe is no longer as central to Germany as it used to be, the International Herald Tribune reported. With large parts of Europe still in an economic rut and struggling to cope with a debt crisis, Germany is increasingly deploying its money and energy outside the euro zone to fuel its robust growth.

German retailer Tengelmann expects to exit its holding in Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea (A&P) when the U.S. grocery store chain emerges from bankruptcy protection, Reuters reported. "We hope that A&P can be led out of its insolvency. But we do not believe that we will be significant shareholders after the process ends," Tengelmann Chief Executive Karl-Erivan Haub told reporters on Thursday. Tengelmann, which owns about 38 percent of A&P, said last year it expected the company to be combined with another retailer in the long term.

Helaba, a German public sector bank, is pulling out from the EU’s bank stress test to avoid a public failure, heightening concerns over the credibility of this week’s results. The bank said on Wednesday that the European Banking Authority, which is running the tests, had rebuffed its attempts to shore up its capital and that Helaba was expected to publish its own results separately, the Financial Times reported. The withdrawal reduces the number of participating banks to 90.

Germany's upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, Friday approved government plans to impose an annual levy on banks that would generate funds for the rescue of any stricken institutions deemed too big to fail, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The government must now rubber stamp the regulation, which will come into effect in coming weeks, once official approval by the German president has been given.

European governments' plan for private-sector creditors to help Greece's next bailout without triggering a default were thrown into doubt Wednesday, as senior German officials resurrected a once-rejected proposal that would cost investors more, The Wall Street Journal reported. The German proposal—calling for investors to be encouraged to swap Greek government bonds for new bonds—had been ditched a month ago after strong opposition from the European Central Bank and governments including France, because it would lead to Greece being called in default by rating agencies.

Bailouts of Europe's debt-stricken countries face a legal challenge on Tuesday as Germany's top court begins hearing a lawsuit against German contributions to the rescues of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, Reuters reported. The Karlsruhe-based Constitutional Court is not likely to block the German government's participation in bailouts altogether, or force the government to withdraw its commitments to current rescue plans, legal experts say. But most experts, including government sources, say they expect the court to impose conditions making it harder for the government to provide fresh aid.

Dutch investment group Novapars Capital said on Thursday it has agreed to buy the 115 million euro ($163 million) German loan portfolio of DSB Bank, the first sale of the bankrupt Dutch bank's operations, Reuters reported. DSB was declared bankrupt in October 2009 after it was hit by a liquidity crunch when clients withdrew about one-sixth of the group's deposits. The company was later seized by the Dutch central bank, DNB, and its assets are under administration.