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Farmers across Germany on Monday began protests against the government's economic and agricultural policies, blocking roads and highways with tractors and marching through major cities. Some signs carried by protesters and attached to tractors had messages such as "no farmer, no food, no future" and "when farmers are ruined, food has to be imported" written on them. Others called for new elections and called the coalition government "senseless" and "incompetent". A spokesperson for the German government was not immediately available when contacted by CNBC. Local media quoted police authorities as saying some farmers had dumped hay, animal feed and manure...

The European Commission has harshly denounced the blockade at the Ukrainian border instigated by Polish truckers and farmers, threatening legal action against the government in Warsaw. "The truth is that I find the situation at the Polish border with Ukraine absolutely unacceptable," Adina Vălean, the European Commissioner for transport, said on Wednesday. "While I support the right of people to protest, the entire EU, not to mention Ukraine, a country currently at war, cannot be taken hostage by blocking our external borders. It's as simple as that." Since 6 November, Polish truckers and farmers have blocked transit through different border...

BRUSSELS, Belgium: This week, the European Commission launched an investigation into the influx of Chinese electric vehicles (EV) to protect European Union (EU) producers. In the investigation, the commission will decide whether to impose punitive tariffs against cheaper Chinese EV imports, which it claims benefit from state subsidies. In her annual address to the European parliament, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said, "Global markets are now flooded with cheaper electric cars. And their price is kept artificially low by huge state subsidies." In its highest-profile case against China since an EU probe into Chinese solar panels...

The Low Pay Commission is expected to recommend to the Government that it increases the minimum wage next year by 12%. This would be a rise of €1.40 an hour, bringing the rate from €11.30 to €12.70. Last year, the Government announced plans to introduce a new national “living wage” to replace the minimum wage by 2026. It will be phased in over a four-year period starting this year and will be set at 60% of the hourly median wage. In 2023, it is estimated that 60% of median earnings would equate to approximately €13.10 per hour. The minimum wage...

The European Union's executive told its 27 member countries at a seminar on Monday that it was not possible to create a gas price cap that would not affect long-term contracts or supply security, two diplomatic sources told Reuters. After much wrangling at an all-night summit, EU leaders agreed last month to task the executive European Commission with proposing a temporary EU framework to cap gas prices in electricity generation and create a temporary natural gas transaction price corridor to bring down costs for consumers. But a compromise between those like France, Spain and Belgium that want a cap, and...

Europe's largest economy is sending recession signals. Germany's key future indicator, the IFO survey of business confidence, pointed down for the fourth month in a row as high inflation fed by astronomical natural gas prices undermines consumer pricing power and imposes heavy costs on businesses. ... High energy and commodity prices are weighing on demand and putting pressure on profit margins, said Carsten Brzeski, chief eurozone economist at ING bank. Companies can no longer pass through higher costs to consumers as easily as in the first months of the year. Company order books are shrinking, while businesses that use a...

Inflation in the 19 European countries that share the euro hit a 13-year high, challenging the European Central Bank’s (ECB) view that price pressures are largely benign and will soon fade. Consumer price inflation in the eurozone accelerated to 3.4 percent over the year in September, up from 3 percent a month earlier and 2.2 percent the month before that, according to Oct. 1 data (pdf) from Eurostat, the European Union’s statisics agency. That’s the highest reading since September 2008 and slightly ahead of analyst forecasts of 3.3 percent. A surge in energy costs was behind the bulk of the...

ZURICH (Reuters) - A potential lurch to the left in Germany's election on Sunday is scaring millionaires into moving assets into Switzerland, bankers and tax lawyers say. If the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), hard-left Linke and environmentalist Greens come to power, the reintroduction of a wealth tax and a tightening of inheritance tax could be on the political agenda. "For the super-rich, this is red hot," said a German-based tax lawyer with extensive Swiss operations. "Entrepreneurial families are highly alarmed." The move shows how many rich people still see Switzerland as an attractive place to park wealth, despite its efforts...

The left-wing Politico has been sold to a German company for a ridiculous $1 billion. The Washingtonian reported that the Virginia-based news outlet is being sold for a whopping $1 billion to Axel Springer SE. The two entities had reportedly“been joint venture partners since 2014” when Politico Europe was launched, according to Business Wire. But the company is plagued with bias. Axel Springer Chairman and CEO Mathias Döpfner falsely accused President Donald Trump of being behind the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot by saying he “call[ed] for a coup against democratic institutions.” Even more damning was Döpfner’s op-ed in 2017,...

Inflation in Germany surged to 3.8% in July, compared to the same time last year, according to the country’s Federal Statistical Office on Thursday. This was the first time since August 2008 that the annual inflation rate in Europe’s largest economy rose to above 3%. On a month-on-month basis, prices rose by 0.9% from June to July. Destatis, the German name for the statistics institute, calculated the number based on a preliminary calculation. […] [E]nergy prices … have been rising faster than the general average for months now. In addition, consumers burning fossil fuels have had to pay €25 ($29.70)...

A German job site has been launched to let businesses search for “vaccine skeptic” workers, i.e. those who have not been vaccinated and who would not get the jab. The site, called Impffrei Work (vaccine-free work), was launched by a network of coronavirus skeptics in order “to counter the scientific narrative of the so-called pandemic”, Germany’s Spiegel magazine reports. The jobs advertised are in a variety of industries, from taxi drivers to tax advisors. Some of the jobs on the site include frequent contact with the most vulnerable, i.e. calling for workers in hospitals and care homes. Physiotherapists, social workers,...

The German economy, Europe’s largest, contracted by a record 9.7% in the second quarter as consumer spending, company investments and exports saw a steep decline due to the coronavirus pandemic. Although the contraction was the worst on record, it was still less than what economists initially anticipated, after the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) revised the quarter-on-quarter contraction in gross domestic product down from the 10.1% it initially reported at the end of July.  The economic slump was much stronger than during the 2007-08 financial crisis which saw a 4.7% decline in the first quarter of 2009, and it represented the...

Germany’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 10.1% in the second quarter of 2020, according to economic data released on Thursday. The data from Germany’s Federal Statistic Office comes amid fears of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic across Europe. “This was the sharpest decline since the quarterly GDP calculations for Germany began in 1970,” the statistics office said. Compared with last year, Thursday’s figures were even worse. GDP was down 11.7% for April to June, with an overall collapse of exports and household spending alongside an increase in state spending. “It’s clear that it was a really horrible...

Europe’s Airbus said on Friday it would increase loan repayments to France and Spain in a “final” bid to reverse U.S. tariffs and jog the United States into settling a 16-year-old dispute over billions of dollars of aircraft subsidies. The European Union, France and Spain said the move to raise interest rates paid by Airbus on A350 aircraft development loans should settle the row at the World Trade Organization and urged Washington to withdraw tariffs on EU goods. “In the absence of a settlement, the EU will be ready to fully avail itself of its own sanction rights,” EU Trade...

Angela Merkel announced Britain will have to “live with the consequences” of a distant relationship with the European Union in the event of a no-deal exit. Unlike his predecessor Theresa May, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has scrapped the idea of maintaining close economic ties with the EU after the Brexit transition period ends on December 31. The UK recently rejected a EU deal surrounding environmental and consumer protections and workplace rights, and Mrs. Merkel has now hardened her stance as Germany prepares to take over the rotating presidency of the EU. The German chancellor told the media on Friday:...

The German economy contracted 2.2% in the first quarter of 2020, the worst result since the 2008 financial crisis. Experts had expected a contraction of around 2%. The latest data, released by the federal statistics authority Destasis on Friday, also showed revisions to 2019 fourth-quarter figures from zero growth to a contraction of 0.1%. This means Germany is now in a recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. The first quarter figures are only a partial indication of how much the pandemic has harmed Europe’s largest economy. […] GDP is expected to shrink even further in the...

Despite the devastating economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, Britain is making scant effort to negotiate a far-reaching free trade deal in the wake of Brexit that would stave off a costly final separation at the end of the year, the European Union said Friday. EU negotiatior Michel Barnier said his British counterparts keep insisting on unrealistic deadlines and demands that could only lead to a chaotic trade rupture which would mount economic losses on both sides on top of those already expected from the coronavirus crisis. “I am worried,” Barnier said after what he described as another week of...

The French government could provide up to €20 billion in fresh capital to help companies hardest hit by the coronavirus outbreak, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Friday. “We have decided to put €20 billion into a special (state) fund in order to be able to support all those companies which might need it,” Le Maire said on Europe 1 radio. The funds will be included in a new budget plan due to be submitted to ministers next week. […] “As regards Air France, we are ready, when the time comes… to intervene,” Le Maire said. Separately, the head...

The coronavirus outbreak has made a recession in Europe’s largest economy inevitable in the first half of this year, Germany’s council of economic advisers said on Monday, predicting that output could shrink by up to 5.4% this year. The panel, which advises the government on economic policy, said its baseline scenario — in which the economic situation would normalize over the summer — was for the economy to contract by 2.8% this year before potentially growing by 3.7% next year. But a more marked “V-shaped” recession curve with widespread halts to production or longer-lasting public health measures, could lead to...

The German government is planning an economic aid package worth €822 billion to prevent companies from going under during the coronavirus pandemic. The planned funds are to be made available according to a draft bill seen by AFP on Saturday. The funds will go towards a slew of aid programs, including help for employees forced into shorter work hours. They may also be used to fund the partial nationalization of large enterprises in order to keep them afloat, according to the text. […] Germany’s so-called “debt brake” was written into its constitution in 2009, and limits a federal budget deficit...