German inflation accelerated in July, evidence that may add to the European Central Bank’s caution as it moves toward further interest-rate cuts, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 2.6% from a year earlier in July, up from 2.5% the previous month. Analysts polled by Bloomberg had predicted the pace to remain stable. While energy costs eased less than in June, food price pressures increased and services remained stable. A separate report earlier showed Spanish inflation slowing more than predicted. Readings for France, Italy and the euro area are due on Wednesday.
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Germany
Consulting firm Falkensteg has been commissioned to carry out an international sales process of insolvent German microinverter manufacturer Solarnative, PV-Magazine.com reported. "Solarnative has developed a good market position. With the right investment, the company can fully exploit its potential and successfully open up the market for rooftop systems,” the Solarnative's provisional insolvency administrator Jan Markus Plathner from the law firm Brinkmann & Partner said. He sees the sales process as a good opportunity to restructure and continue the company's business.
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German consumers offered a brighter picture of their incomes this year, as inflation ticks down and the European soccer tournament in the country offered a boost, a monthly survey said, the Wall Street Journal reported. The forward-looking consumer-climate index for Germany, published Wednesday by research group GfK and the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions, forecasts confidence to rise 3.2 points to minus 18.4 points in August. That was a little better than the consensus of minus 20.8 from economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
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One of the major German furniture retailers, Opti-Wohnwelt, is facing financial difficulties, Aussiedlerbote.de reported. The company has filed an application for insolvency proceedings in Self-Administration at the Schweinfurt District Court, Opti announced. The court has granted the application. Lawyer Stefan Debus has been appointed as trustee. "The application for Self-Administration was not an easy one for us," said Managing Director Oliver Foest.
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Four subsidiaries of German landlord Demire Deutsche Mittelstand Real Estate AG are filing for insolvency after failing to repay a loan, Bloomberg News reported. The property companies couldn’t reach an agreement with creditor DZ HYP AG for a standstill or orderly repayment of an €82 million ($89 million) loan that was due on June 30. The four property companies will therefore file an insolvency application, Demire said in a statement on Monday.
German industrial production slumped in May as car manufacturing tailed off, after an uptick in the sector at the start of this year faded away, the Wall Street Journal reported. Industrial output declined 2.5% on month in May, on a seasonally and calendar-adjusted basis, much weaker than the 0.1% increase in April, German statistics agency Destatis said Friday. Production increased at the beginning of 2024, helping Europe’s largest economy to grow 0.2% in the first quarter after a significant contraction late last year.
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The European Union gave Deutsche Lufthansa its conditional approval to buy a minority stake in ITA Airways, the Italian carrier formerly known as Alitalia, bolstering the German carrier group’s reach in Europe and its exposure to the lucrative Italian market, the Wall Street Journal reported. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, said its approval was conditional upon full compliance with remedies offered by Lufthansa and Italy’s economy and finance ministry to address concerns from competition officials over the deal’s impact on short- and long-haul routes.
Von der Leyen, Costa and Kallas Endorsed for the EU’s Top Jobs. Here’s Who They Are and What They Do
Following the elections for EU Parliament, European Union leaders have agreed on the officials who will hold the key positions in the world’s biggest trading bloc in the coming years for issues ranging from antitrust investigations to foreign policy, the Associated Press reported. The three nominees will lead the EU’s powerful executive branch — the European Commission — and the forum where the 27 member countries are represented, the European Council, with the final nominee being the bloc’s top diplomat.
The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) has reported an increase in corporate insolvencies in the first quarter versus the same period last year, Börsen-Zeitung reported. The upward trend in insolvency numbers remains unbroken, although the momentum decreased slightly in May. Early indicators collected by the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research Halle (IWH) suggest a decline in numbers for the coming months, but credit rating agency Crif anticipates a higher default rate compared to recent figures.
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The owner of a prominent skyscraper in Germany's banking capital of Frankfurt has filed for insolvency, as the country reels from its biggest property crisis in a generation, Reuters reported. The tower, described on its website as an "essential part of the Frankfurt skyline", is home to part of Germany's central bank and to Deka, one of its biggest asset managers. Geschaeftshaus am Gendarmenmarkt, which owns the 186-metre, 45-floor Trianon building, filed for insolvency in a Frankfurt court on Monday and an insolvency manager has been appointed, a filing published on Tuesday showed.
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