BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers discussed on Monday having more money in their rescue fund and cheaper emergency loans as part of a package of measures to end the sovereign debt crisis, but they made no firm decisions.

The chairman of euro zone finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker, said the ministers discussed many possible options under the package, but favored none at this stage.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany plans to issue less debt next year thanks to its strong recovery and is not concerned the euro zone debt crisis will push up its borrowing costs, the head of the country’s debt management office said on Thursday.

With Europe’s largest economy fast emerging from its deepest post-war recession, the debt agency said it would issue 302 billion euros of bonds and treasury bills in 2011 versus 312 billion in 2010, in line with previous indications.

BERLIN/LONDON (Reuters) – Bickering among European Union leaders escalated on Wednesday over a proposal for joint euro zone bonds to overcome the bloc’s debt crisis, with Germany saying it opposed the idea on legal and economic grounds.

The chairman of finance ministers of the 16-nation single currency area, Jean-Claude Juncker, criticised German leaders for dismissing his suggestion for “E-bonds” to deter speculation against euro zone countries without examining it properly.

BERLIN/LONDON (Reuters) – Bickering escalated among European Union leaders on Wednesday over a proposal for joint euro zone bonds to overcome the bloc’s debt crisis, with Germany saying it opposed the idea on legal and economic grounds.

The chairman of finance ministers of the 16-nation single currency area, Jean-Claude Juncker, criticized German leaders for dismissing his suggestion without examining it properly.

FRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters) – The European Central Bank faced pressure on Thursday to take steps to contain the euro zone debt crisis and prevent it affecting the United States and Asia, but was unlikely to announce mass new bond purchases.

Pressure has grown on the ECB to act since last weekend’s 85 billion-euro ($110.7-billion) EU-IMF rescue of Ireland failed to dispel fears that other countries using the euro, such as Portugal or Spain, could require a bailout.

BERLIN, Dec 2 (Reuters) – Extra liquidity alone won’t
resolve the euro zone’s debt problems, German Economy Minister
Rainer Bruederle said on Thursday as financial markets’ hopes
grew of more action from the European Central Bank.

Bruederle warned that pumping too much money into the
economy risked creating new bubbles.

BERLIN, Nov 8 (Reuters) – German exports soared in September
while industrial output faltered, indicating Europe’s largest
economy will post solid if unspectacular third quarter growth
later this week as the recovery eases.

Exports grew twice as fast as expected in September, up 3.0
percent on the month when seasonally adjusted, and the trade
surplus reached its widest in nearly two years at 15.6 billion
euros, data from the Federal Statistics Office showed on Monday.

BERLIN, Nov 8 (Reuters) – German industrial output fell at
its sharpest monthly rate in nearly a year in September while
exports soared, painting a mixed picture of an economy expected
to have posted solid if unspectacular growth in the third
quarter.

Output fell by 0.8 percent on the month in seasonally
adjusted terms, the Economy Ministry said on Monday, missing the
median forecast for a 0.5-percent increase in a Reuters poll and
sending the euro to the day’s low against the dollar. ECONDE

BERLIN (Reuters)- Germany’s strong economic recovery will slow in 2011 as export growth tails off, but rising private consumption should offer support, a Reuters poll of economists showed on Thursday.

The median forecast in the survey of around 20 economists was for the German economy, Europe’s largest, to grow by 2.0 percent in 2011 after expanding 3.4 percent this year — a sharp upgrade from forecasts of 1.6 and 2.0 percent in a poll in July.

BERLIN/MUNICH, Germany, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Credit provision
in Germany has returned to pre-crisis levels as banks channel
funds into the domestic market while steering well clear of
risky assets, the head of the Ifo economic research institute
said on Wednesday.

“Concerning credit, I think we are back,” Ifo President
Hans-Werner Sinn said in an interview with Reuters Insider
television. “The interest rates which banks now charge
homeowners in Germany are the lowest in history.”