Germany's unemployment rate rose slightly in July, official figures showed Thursday, a blip in what has become known as a "jobs miracle" as Europe's top economy powers its way out of recession.
A surge in demand for luxury cars has BMW and rival Daimler scrambling on Thursday to ramp up production in Germany and the United States, the groups said.
Luxury goods producers are slowly recovering from the global financial crisis, with four percent growth expected for 2010, according to analysis published in Munich on Friday.
Germans worry the most among people living in European countries, particularly about unemployment, a new study by the GfK market research institute reported on Monday.
The government plans to cut at least 10,000 civil servant jobs as well as allowing the work agency to decide how much to pay unemployed people, according to details leaked to the media as budget talks started on Sunday.
Overall retail sales in Germany may have dropped by almost 2 percent for 2009 following the financial crisis, but most hardware stores actually increased their sales by 0.7 percent, a media report said on Monday.
Industrial output in Germany shot up 4.0 percent in March, the Economy Ministry said Friday, one day after announcing a surprise spike in industrial orders.
Demand for German manufactured goods soared 5.0 percent in March driven by both domestic demand and exports, in a further sign of recovery in Europe's top economy, provisional figures showed Thursday.
Germany's third largest global retail chain Metro said Friday that its first quarter sales and pre-tax profit edged higher owing to a pick-up in many of its markets.
The German economy, Europe's biggest, shrank slightly in the first three months of the year due mainly to a viciously cold winter, the country's central bank, the Bundesbank, forecast on Monday.
Germany offered other countries information on how to run their economies in a more efficient fashion on Thursday with the online publication of documents in English on the "German job miracle."
Many German cities and municipalities will go broke if the federal government does not help pay for social benefits programmes, the head of the German Association of Cities and Towns (DST) said on Friday.
Despite the recession, falling profits and job layoffs, Germany’s biggest firms are set to pay out about €20 billion this year to their shareholders, a survey has found.
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday slashed its growth forecasts for Germany for this year and 2011, warning that a recovery in Europe's top economy would only be "moderate and fragile."
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on Friday chided Germany for not doing more to boost innovation and services to help its recovery, and warned Europe's largest economy against creating a two-tier labour market.
Germany's parliament Friday approved a budget for 2010 with a record level of new borrowing, as Europe's top economy seeks to bounce back from the most severe recession since World War II.
Europe's biggest economy stuttered to a halt late last year and consumer sentiment continued to fall in the following months, but analysts say another recession in Germany is not in the cards.
Data on Tuesday showed German business confidence unexpectedly sliding for the first time in nearly a year, raising fears that the path to recovery for Europe's top economy will be long and bumpy.
The German economy stagnated in the fourth quarter of 2009, halting the European heavyweight's rebound from a deep recession, data released on Friday by the Federal Statistics Office showed.
Fears that uncertain recovery in Europe's biggest economy could stall were stoked Friday when data showed that German industrial production suffered a sharp setback in December.
German retail sales fell by 1.8 percent last year, final figures released Tuesday by the national statistics service showed, the biggest decline since euro notes and coins were introduced in 2002.
Economy Minister Rainer Brüderle on Wednesday said Germany will grow more than expected this year, raising the government's growth forecast to 1.4 percent from a previous estimate of 1.2 percent.
German business confidence rose for a record 10th month in a row, the Ifo index showed Tuesday, raising hopes that Germany's economy, Europe's largest, could lead the continent from its slump.
The German government will raise its growth rate forecast for 2010 from 1.2 percent to 1.5 percent in its annual economic report, according to the weekly <i>Der Spiegel</i>.
