Amid a dispute over tax cuts, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition has prepared the groundwork for a new economic stimulus package designed to protect Germany from recession. A key element of the talks between Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and her Social Democrat (SPD) partners was how to...

As currencies go, the euro is still in short trousers. But where once it was dwarfed by the powerful pound, now the two currencies are rubbing shoulders. Ten years on since its birth, the euro is the strongest it has ever been. A year ago, a pound would have...

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) economist has criticised the UK’s 2.5-percentage-point cut in spending taxes. Olivier Blanchard, the IMF’s chief economist, said that the temporary cut in VAT would not significantly influence shoppers’ behaviour. In an interview with French newspaper Le Monde, Mr Blanchard said he did not think...

As planeloads of European tourists roam London looking for cheap Christmas deals, the Labour government of Gordon Brown is keeping a stiff upper lip over the British pound’s relentless slide towards parity with the euro. “We have never had a policy of targeting the pound,” Yvette Cooper, a cabinet...

A member of the German opposition FDP party said the budget deficit for 2009 will be the biggest ever in Germany’s post-war history and blamed Germany for not doing more to promote savings. Germany will set a new record for debt next year, surpassing even huge 40 billion euros...