German automaker BMW said Monday it held talks in France last month on issues such as electric cars but added that the exchanges did not cover cooperation on an industrial level.
More Germans rent their homes than anywhere else in Europe, but it‘s not such an affordable option as it once was, according to a new study released on Thursday by real estate association IVD.
Labour Minister Olaf Scholz said on Saturday he expects a rush by companies to reduce working hours as well as a big jump in unemployment this year as Germany slides deeper into recession.
Berlin forecast on Wednesday that Germany will suffer its deepest post-war recession this year just as Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet chewed over a historic rescue package aimed at boosting the economy.
Europe's leading carmaker Volkswagen said on Tuesday it would idle about two thirds of its 92,000 German workforce for one week next month as it cuts production amid an economic slump.
German retail giant Metro is planning to cut 15,000 jobs or five percent of its workforce in a major restructuring programme to help it weather the economic slowdown, company sources told AFP on Tuesday.
Germany has thrashed out the biggest stimulus package in its post-war history, but critics dismissed it Tuesday as is too little, too late to shore up Europe's leading economy.
<b>The German government on Monday night agreed to a €50-billion stimulus package, but will it be enough to bolster Europe’s largest economy? The Local spoke with Prof. Michael Burda, director of the Institute for Economic Theory at Berlin’s Humboldt University.</b>
German discount grocer Aldi plans to open at least 75 stores in the United States in the coming year, hoping to draw traditional Wal-Mart shoppers to even cheaper deals during the economic downturn, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
The number of auto workers forced to accept reduced hours could rise to as many as 300,000 in the coming months as the financial crisis takes hold in Germany, industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer told daily <i>Bild</i> on Tuesday.
Almost one-fifth of the 40 million German households has paid domestic help under the table at least once, according to a study published by opinion research centre TNS Emnid on Monday.
German billionaire Adolf Merckle sealed the breakup of his industrial empire before committing suicide on Monday – agreeing to the sale of Germany’s biggest generic drugmaker Ratiopharm.
Last year was the worst for Germany's auto sector since the country was reunified in 1990, with sales down very sharply in the later months, the auto manufacturers federation VDA said Tuesday.
The German railway Deutsche Bahn (DB) said on Monday it would buy up to €1.5 billion ($2.0 billion) worth of train cars from the Canadian group Bombardier.
The German carmaker Opel, a unit of US giant General Motors, has lowered the price of several models to stimulate demand, an executive said on Monday in an interview.
Everyone expects 2009 to be a rough year, but according to Hans-Werner Sinn, the head of Munich's Ifo economic institute, Germany is facing two dire years of recession and rising unemployment.
The German government has warned business leaders that it cannot fulfill all the demands made ahead of negotiations for a second financial stimulus package.
A leading economic advisor for the German government, Wolfgang Wiegard, on Friday said 700,000 people could expect to lose their jobs in Germany in 2009.
Public sector strikes could hit Germany in 2009 if wage talks next month on behalf of 800,000 workers fail to produce a satisfactory outcome, the head one of the main trade unions warned on Tuesday.
German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück said on Monday there were signs Europe’s largest economy could come through the global financial crisis largely unscathed.
