Business

How bad are Germany's economic problems? One commonly used indicator is the number of company insolvencies and recent figures have produced worrying headlines. According to a study by the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), the insolvency rate among partnerships and corporations in Germany was 80% higher in June than in an average June between 2016 and 2019, the period before the COVID-19 pandemic. Sole proprietors, freelancers and very small businesses were not included in these figures because they are considered less relevant to the overall labor market. Partnerships and corporations account for about 90% of jobs affected by insolvencies and 95% of the claims involved. The number of company bankruptcies in the second quarter of 2026 reached its highest level in 20 years, acc...

In what seems like the blink of an eye, China has gone from being up to five years behind the United States in top-tier artificial intelligence (AI) to lagging by just a few months. While US players, including Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's ChatGPT, have spent hundreds of billions of dollars to push the frontier of AI, China has pursued a very different path. Faced with US curbs on high-end chips that help AI to do its most advanced thinking, Chinese tech firms have prioritized dozens of open-source AI models built on "good enough" technology. These platforms, including DeepSeek, Alibaba's Qwen and Xiaomi's MiMo, are now widely deployed across Chinese businesses, government services and consumer devices. Chinese AI models narrow gap with US leaders In the latest sign of the gap closi...

Why are oil prices rising again? Around two weeks after the resumption of US and Iranian attacks in the Gulf region, the price of Brent crude broke above $100 a barrel (€87.8) on July 24. This marked a nearly one-third increase from last month's low but is still below the $126 peak reached in April at the height of the conflict. The latest oil price surge was fueled by a major escalation in the Red Sea that could further set back efforts to export Gulf oil through alternative southern routes as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively shut. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels based in Yemen entered the conflict on Wednesday (July 22), claiming responsibility for attacks on two Saudi oil tankers, and have threatened to further disrupt commercial traffic in the Red Sea. The Red Sea route had ...

The European Central Bank (ECB) said on Thursday it would hold its interest rates steady for the time being, but indicated it was closely monitoring the economic fallout of the Iran war.  The ECB had raised rates last month and hinted at more to come, but a string of relatively calm data in the weeks that followed made a follow-up step seem less urgent.  Still, Thursday's decision came as oil futures prices once again briefly topped $100 per barrel and as more intense exchanges of fire between the US and Iran have again become a daily occurrence. What did the ECB say about its rates decision?  The Frankfurt-based central bank for countries in the eurozone single currency area said that the outlook for energy prices was currently in line with projections from June, if well above the lev...

Which countries will face Trump's new tariffs? The Trump administration on Thursday announced new tariffs on 60 economies, including the European Union, citing their handling of imported goods made with forced labor. In a statement, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) said it had investigated major trading partners and found that they failed to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods made through modern slavery. The tariffs cover more than 99% of US imports and replace a temporary 10% global tariff that was due to expire. A 10% tariff will apply to countries like Argentina, India, Pakistan and the UK that have adopted or committed to forced-labor import restrictions.   Trump hits Canada with 50% tariffs in major trade escalationTo view this v...

The Strait of Hormuz has become one of the world's most dangerous waterways since March, when Iran began attacking shipping vessels as a pressure tactic in its ceasefire talks with the United States. Still, though a significant proportion of the global oil trade bottlenecks at the strait, shipping traffic never completely halted. With the United States and Iran issuing conflicting statements as to whether the Strait of Hormuz is open, DW analyzed public data sources to track how shipping traffic has changed during the course of the war and which vessels are still taking the risk of transiting the maritime choke point, which connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman.  Shipping through Strait of Hormuz disrupted  As Iran's strikes on and interception of vessels in the Strait of Horm...

For many German farmers, the heat wave in late June couldn't have come at a worse time. While barley was already ready for harvest across much of Germany, the drought struck other crops during a particularly vulnerable stage of development. "This year is another difficult one for farms," Horst Gömann of Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia Chamber of Agriculture told DW. Corn has been particularly hard hit, as the extreme heat coincided with the flowering period, he said. "We're already seeing some corn plants failing to form cobs. That, of course, essentially amounts to a total crop failure," Gömann said. In corn, the energy is concentrated in the cobs. If they're missing, yields plummet dramatically. The heat wave in June, with peak temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, hit other Eu...

A potentially record-strength El Nino is now intensifying across the Pacific, bringing either drought or flooding to the world's key farming regions. Earlier this month, the US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted a 63% chance that the unusual weather pattern could be "very strong" this year. JP Morgan, meanwhile, warned last week that El Nino, combined with $100 (€88) oil prices, could spike food inflation by up to 1.5%. The arrival of El Nino follows two major conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, during which global food supplies have held up remarkably well. So, could this third crisis bring the perfect storm that tips the balance?Are African nations underestimating the risks of El Nino?To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgr...

BMW makes five BMW on Wednesday became the fifth German carmaker to announce major job cuts, as the country's auto sector seeks to tackle rising competition from China. The Munich-based firm said it would cut up to 8,000 jobs globally, representing about 5% of its 154,000-strong workforce. BMW, which also owns the Mini and Rolls-Royce brands, said the job losses would primarily affect operations in Germany and be achieved through natural staff turnover and a voluntary redundancy program. Although BMW was seen as more resilient to Chinese competition, the company warned last month that its sales in China were falling sharply. Chinese rivals have intensified competition for electric vehicles (EV), which has crushed BMW's sales volumes and pricing power. Last year, BMW's vehicle deliv...

In the latest sign of China's threat to the United States's tech dominance, the Trump administration on Tuesday banned new foreign-made humanoid and four-legged robotsfrom entering the country. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) cited "unacceptable risks" to national security for the decision. The FCC noted how the robots "collect data that could be leveraged by malign actors to surveil Americans, enhance the capabilities of foreign intelligence services, or to remotely commandeer the robots." The move is widely seen as aimed squarely at China, which accounted for 85% of humanoid robot deployments last year, according to British bank Barclays.Humanoid robots steal the show at German trade fairTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser t...