China and Germany are not manipulating
the value of their currencies to gain an unfair trade advantage, but both
should do more to reduce their large trade surpluses with the United States, the Treasury Department said on Friday.
Fourteen years after the introduction of the Euro in cash, Germans are still holding onto their Deutschmarks (DM), mainly for the sentimental value attached to them.
The European Central Bank (ECB) unveiled a new "state-of-the-art" €50 bill on Tuesday. A German police union said criminals would find a way to forge it.
The German government believes Greece should be granted debt relief only in 2018 after it has fully complied with its EU bailout, according to a finance ministry document seen by AFP Thursday.
A brand-new five-Euro coin, which has a blue plastic ring in the middle, will make life harder for counterfeiters, the Bavarian finance ministry claims.
Following the shock move last week do unpeg the Swiss Franc (CHF) from the Euro, estimates suggest that debt in German municipalities has gone up by €2 billion, it was reported on Monday.
The Bundesbank started issuing a new €5 note on Thursday which will gradually replace the bill that has been in circulation since the introduction of the single currency in 2002.
Almost 70 percent of Germans now favour the euro, and only 27 percent would prefer to ditch the common currency and return to the once-beloved deutschmark, a survey published on Tuesday found.
The price of gold has had an extraordinary run over recent years, and for happy industry professionals holding their annual powwow in Germany, the party is set to continue.
The European Union will have to mull stricter penalties against member states over budget deficits, Germany said on Monday, in the wake of the Greece crisis that has knocked confidence in the euro.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has taken an impassioned swipe at banks, saying it would be a "scandal" if it were proved they had helped Greece massage its statistics, prompting a major crisis.
Germany said on Friday that it sees no reason for "unease" over Greece's fiscal woes and that it is confident that Athens will live up to its promises to rein in its yawning budget deficit.
Eight people were injured at the Hamburg headquarters of the German Bundesbank when mysterious gas seeped out of bags of old Deutsche mark coins they were cleaning, authorities reported on Monday.
