The struggles continue for global automakers in China, Electrek reported. After halting production, Volkswagen announced it will close a plant in China. And that’s not all: Another OEM is filing for bankruptcy through its joint venture. Although it might not seem significant, China is one of, if not the most important markets, for Volkswagen, accounting for around 30% of its deliveries. Volkswagen has already halted production at its manufacturing plant in Nanjing and plans to close it officially later this year. The Nanjing facility was opened by VW’s joint venture, SAIC Volkswagen, in 2008.

Germany’s unemployment rate was unchanged in June, but signs of a loosening labor market remain as economic uncertainty around trade and geopolitics persists, the Wall Street Journal reported. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.3% for a fourth consecutive month, data from Germany’s Federal Employment Agency published Tuesday said. However, there were 632,000 vacancies in June, 69,000 fewer than the same month of 2024, the agency said. Jobless claims rose 11,000, albeit that was a slowdown from the 33,000 in May.

Germany’s annual inflation rate fell in June to 2%, in line with the European Central Bank’s target, preliminary data showed. The new reading for Europe’s largest economy reflected a broader easing across the continent — a positive sign for the central bank as it weighs further rate cuts this year, SEMAFOR reported. “Overall, it’s safe to say that the days of high inflation are over for now,” Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank, told Der Spiegel.

The German economy is expected to grow this year following two consecutive years of contraction, four economic institutes said on Thursday, raising their forecasts for 2025 and 2026, Reuters reported. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) raised its forecast to 0.3% growth from the stagnation it had previously envisaged due to a better-than-expected first quarter, when the economy grew by 0.4%. "The German economy is seeing some light at the end of the tunnel," the economists said in their new forecasts.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday that he would pursue a deal under which U.S. cars could be imported into Europe duty free in exchange for tariff waivers on the same number of vehicles exported to the United States, Reuters reported. Speaking at an event in Berlin just hours after his inaugural trip to Washington for talks with U.S.

German manufacturing orders unexpectedly rose in April, confounding fears that the Trump administration’s ratcheting up of tariffs would hit demand for German goods, the Wall Street Journal reported. Factory orders climbed 0.6% on month, Germany’s statistics agency Destatis said Thursday. Nevertheless, the first hard industrial data after President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement showed a slowdown from the 3.4% increase in March, which came as U.S. firms stockpiled goods from abroad in an effort to get ahead of proposed levies.

Helaba and other German lenders have paid millions of euros in recent weeks to settle claims by the administrator of former real estate tycoon René Benko’s Signa Prime Selection AG, the Luxembourg Times reported. Helaba paid €26 million at the end of May as part of an out-of court settlement, Signa Prime’s insolvency administrator said in a report to creditors dated Monday. Other payments include €3 million received from Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG and €2.1 million from Bayerische Landesbank.