The German economy, Europe's biggest, shrank in the fourth quarter of last year, leaving full-year growth at just 0.7 percent, official data showed on Tuesday. Berlin is reportedly expecting even less growth in 2013.
Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Germans that the economy, Europe's biggest, would experience a harder time next year than in 2012 and cautioned that the eurozone debt crisis was far from over.
Germany, one of the world's top exporters, should post a new record for exports next year, driven by demand from Asia, the head of the BGA federation of exporters and wholesalers said on Sunday.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said he believes the embattled eurozone is already past the peak of its three-year-long debt crisis, citing positive developments in Greece and France.
Former chancellor and German political sage Helmut Schmidt gave his successor Angela Merkel a damning end-of-year report for her European policy on Thursday, saying it was the opinion of an "age-old man."
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said Friday he considered his Dutch counterpart Jeroen Dijsselbloem as a good possible candidate to take over as head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Friday that Europe is "ready to help" Cyprus tackle its debt troubles - but only if the country commits to key structural reforms and an austerity budget.
Europe will have to work "very hard" to maintain its generous welfare system and remain competitive, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a newspaper interview on Monday.
Germany will help Athens set up an investment fund to restore investor confidence and win back private capital, ministers from both countries said here Thursday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel Thursday praised a new EU accord to create a supervisor to oversee banks across the eurozone and urged the release of urgently needed funds for Greece.
As talks drag on over a proposed EU-wide bank supervisor, Europe's paymaster Germany seems to be dragging its feet as it seeks to cast the new body in its own image.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that reforms carried out by Prime Minister Mario Monti had put Italy on a good path, dismissing Silvio Berlusconi's criticism he had been too "German-centric."
A court in northern Greece on Wednesday cleared two council workers and a teacher of assaulting Germany's consul in an anti-austerity protest at which demonstrators chanted "Kick out the Nazis."
Germany is hoping eurozone finance ministers can clinch a deal on unlocking vital funds for Greece later on Monday but strongly rules out accepting losses on its Greek debt holdings, a spokesman said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday she doubted European Union leaders would come to an agreement on the bloc's hotly-contested one-trillion-euro 2014-2020 budget.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said on Thursday he did not expect any quick deal on aid to help debt-mired Greece, from its international creditors.
The head of the European Central Bank (ECB) on Sunday threw his weight behind a German scheme to allow the EU to intervene in countries' budgets and propose changes before they are agreed in parliaments.
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras wants to travel to Bavaria to meet the head of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).
The German government is willing to compromise when it comes to solving Greece's debt woes, but in exchange for that cooperation Berlin is demanding more fiscal integration through EU treaty reform, a report said on Tuesday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former chancellor Helmut Kohl hailed the choice of the crisis-hit European Union for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
Germany's finance minister said Friday there is "no alternative" to cutting debt in European countries, the day after the IMF chief called for Greece to be given more time to pare its deficit.
European Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger has written a letter to Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn, assuring him that new EU restrictions on CO2 limits will not harm the auto giant.
