Berlin (Reuters) – Germany’s manufacturing sector shrank in June at the fastest pace in three years, with new business intake dropping for the 12th month running, in a sign the economy is suffering from both the euro crisis and a broader global economic slowdown.

Markit’s manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) slid to 45.0 in June from 45.2 in May, registering the fastest decline in the sector since June 2009, final data showed on Monday. The figure was just above a flash estimate of 44.7.

BERLIN (Reuters) – German joblessness rose for the third month in a row in June, though it remains close to post-reunification lows, data showed, signalling that Europe’s largest economy is not immune to the euro debt crisis and cannot be relied on to prop up growth.

The Labour Office said on Thursday the number of people out of a job rose by a seasonally-adjusted 7,000 to 2.882 million in June from 2.875 million in May. The consensus forecast in a Reuters poll of economists was for joblessness to rise by 5,000.

BERLIN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU leaders go into a Brussels meeting on Thursday more openly divided than at any time since the euro crisis began, with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel showing no sign of relenting in her refusal to back other countries’ debts.

Merkel is being urged at home to stay tough and reject all efforts to make Germany underwrite European partners’ debts or banks, while her EU partners say that may be the only way to save the single currency.

BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – There is nothing to stop the European Central Bank cutting interest rates further, a senior policymaker said on Wednesday, adding to expectations it could act as soon as next week to counter dimming growth prospects and help tackle the euro zone crisis.

Executive Board member Peter Praet’s intervention followed his colleague Benoit Coeure, who said last week cutting rates was an option and one that would be discussed at the ECB’s July 5 meeting.

BERLIN, June 26 (Reuters) – Consumer morale in Germany
unexpectedly edged up going into July on improving income
expectations, but worries over the euro zone crisis risk hurting
consumption in the months ahead, a survey by GfK market research
group showed on Tuesday.

Other recent data has suggested Europe’s biggest economy is
losing stamina as austerity measures and worries over the crisis
hit investment and exports.

BERLIN, June 22 (Reuters) – German business sentiment fell
for a second straight month in June to its lowest level in over
two years, the latest sign Europe’s largest economy is no longer
immune to the sovereign debt crisis engulfing the euro zone.

Europe’s economic powerhouse had so far avoided the fate of
its euro zone peers thanks to strong exports away from the bloc
and healthy domestic demand, but increasing uncertainty over the
currency bloc’s prospects is starting to hit home.

BERLIN, June 21 (Reuters) – The German government and
opposition reached a deal on Thursday on growth that will allow
parliament to approve the euro zone’s permanent bailout scheme
next week, but Germany’s top court may delay the rescue fund’s
start date scheduled for July 1.

No sooner had Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government and the
centre-left opposition announced a breakthrough in eight weeks
of talks on how to stimulate growth and job creation in Europe
than the constitutional court threw a spanner in the works.

LONDON/BERLIN, June 13 (Reuters) – Uncertainty before Greek
elections prompted investors to pick up 10-year German bonds at
a sale on Wednesday, easing niggling concerns about the
country’s credit quality as the euro zone debt crisis drags on.

A sell-off in German debt over the past two sessions also
boosted demand for 4.04 billion euros of 10-year paper by
cheapening bond prices and pushing yields higher.

BERLIN, June 12 (Reuters) – Germany’s Angela Merkel and its
central bank pushed back on Tuesday against calls from other
parts of the euro zone for the rapid establishment of a banking
union, saying it could only come as part of a drive towards
economic union.

The European Central Bank and European Commission are keen
to move swiftly to cross-border supervision of the bloc’s
biggest banks, and a deposit guarantee scheme, and see Spain’s
bank bailout as a first step in that direction.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Angela Merkel’s government was forced to defend an EU rescue for Spain’s indebted banks on Monday, with many Germans convinced their generosity is being abused and skeptics warning that promising aid without tough conditions sets a risky precedent.

Aides to the German chancellor justified the huge bailout on the grounds that the Spanish economy was not in such dire shape that it required the kind of terms imposed on Greece, and the aid would not be paid directly to Spanish banks but to the government.