Germany

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner favours using the interest accrued from frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine in its war against Moscow, he said on Wednesday on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting which was discussing the issue, Reuters reported. Finance ministers from the G20 want to increase the pressure on Russia and strengthen Ukraine, said Lindner in Sao Paulo. "The European Union is working on how the proceeds from Russian assets can be used for Ukraine.

Leading German sportscar racing outfit Project 1 Motorsport has filed for bankruptcy and will not contest the DTM in 2024, MotorSport.com reported. The team entering its 30th season, run by Hans-Bernd Kamps, has also announced that its event company Project 1 Drivetime, which ran the BMW M2 Cup on the DTM undercard, will also close down.

As fears about U.S. commercial real estate roiled German banks this month, their message was clear: don’t worry, the vast majority of our property exposure is domestic. That may not prove the comfort it seems, Bloomberg News reported. While the country has so far avoided the rapid market corrections that rattled the US, experts argue that reflects arcane accounting practices shielding its lenders and investors from taking immediate hits.

The German and Dutch central banks on Friday posted multi-billion euro losses for 2023 and predicted more financial pain ahead, suggesting that they are unlikely to pay dividends into state coffers for years to come, Reuters reported. The European Central Bank and some of its largest national affiliates are generating large losses, depleting provisions and much of their equity, as sharply higher interest rates force them to pay out billion in interest to commercial banks.

The German government said Europe's largest economy was in “troubled waters” and slashed its growth forecast for this year as it struggles with a lack of skilled labor, excessive bureaucracy, high interest rates and lagging investment in new projects — while a relatively modest set of tax breaks for business remains blocked in the legislature, the Associated Press reported. The growth forecast was lowered to 0.2% from the previous forecast from last fall of 1.3%. That would follow a shrinking of the economy by 0.3% for all of last year.

Germany’s market for office buildings suffered its sharpest drop in two decades as higher financing costs and sluggish return-to-office trends soured investor appetite, Bloomberg News reported. The downturn accelerated in the fourth quarter with a 13% drop from the previous year, according to data published Monday by German banking association VDP. For the full year, prices slumped more than 10%, the most since records began in 2003, and the outlook is for further declines at the start of 2024.

For German banks at the forefront of a spreading US commercial property downturn, covered bonds and deposits can offer a lifeline, according to Barclays Plc analysts, Bloomberg News reported. Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG and Aareal Bank AG have seen their unsecured borrowing costs grind higher as investors scrutinize their loan books for bad US loans. That makes it critical that they continue to be able to rely on more steady sources of funding. Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, known as PBB, said Wednesday that it had increased loan-loss provisions, noting “persistent weakness” in real estate.

German inflation fell in January to its lowest level since June 2021, dragged down by falling energy prices, likely leading to further calls for the European Central Bank to start cutting rates sooner, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were 2.9% higher in January than the same month a year earlier, compared with 3.7% in December, measured by national standards, data from the German statistics office Destatis showed Wednesday.

Germany's support for a law requiring firms in the European Union to take action if they find their supply chains in violation of human rights has become doubtful after one of its ruling parties sided with business groups opposing the proposal, Reuters reported. German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, head of the pro-business Free Democrats, expressly criticized the law this week, echoing leading business associations' concerns that it creates considerable bureaucracy and legal uncertainties. "Now is not the time for an additional supply chain directive," Lindner said on Tuesday.