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It's a stunning turnaround for Europe's biggest economy, which for much of this century had expanded exports and dominated world trade in engineered products like industrial machinery and luxury cars. Moscow's decision to cut off natural gas supplies to Germany in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine dealt a severe blow. For years, Germany’s business model was based on cheap energy fueling production of industrial goods for export.

The old one, fueled by cheap natural gas from Russia and lucrative exports to China, is broken, leaving Europe's biggest economy mired in stagnation and angst about the future. Delivering that fresh growth strategy is going to be the biggest challenge for the government that takes office after a national election set for Feb. 23, seven months ahead of schedule. Multiple factors conspired to take Germany from industrial powerhouse to post-pandemic straggler: too much bureaucracy, a shortage of skilled workers, slow deployment of technology and a lack of clear direction from the outgoing coalition government are among them.

Australian insurance companies fell sharply on Monday after opposition leader Peter Dutton threatened to break them up, accusing them of exploiting customers, as the country prepares for federal elections due by May. In an interview with Sky News, Dutton, leader of the Liberal Party, said that if elected in the federal election, his government would scrutinise insurance industry practices. "In the insurance market, we will intervene to make sure that consumers get a fair go because at the moment people are paying too much for their insurance and what's resulting is that people aren't taking out insurance," Dutton said in the broadcast on Sunday.

(Bloomberg) -- After a year of Wall Street talking about how crowded the hugely popular dispersion trade is, it still appears to be working — and growing. Most Read from BloombergProgressive Portland Plots a ComebackWhy Barcelona Bought the Building That Symbolizes Its Housing CrisisA Filmmaker’s Surreal Journey Into His Own Private WinnipegHow to Build a Neurodiverse CitySpaceX Bid to Turn Texas Starbase Into City Is Set for Vote in MayOne sign of its enduring popularity is the surge in Quantit

(Bloomberg) -- Thailand’s economic growth was weaker-than-expected in 2024 and continued to lag its neighbors as it faces a year fraught with risks from global trade policy hurdles and sluggish domestic demand.Most Read from BloombergWhy Barcelona Bought the Building That Symbolizes Its Housing CrisisProgressive Portland Plots a ComebackA Filmmaker’s Surreal Journey Into His Own Private WinnipegHow to Build a Neurodiverse CitySpaceX Bid to Turn Texas Starbase Into City Is Set for Vote in MaySout

Goldman Sachs raised its target price for Chinese stocks on Monday, estimating that AI adoption could boost earnings growth and potentially bring in $200 billion of inflows. Chinese tech stocks have been on a strong rally, clocking their best winning streak in over two years last week, boosted by DeepSeek's AI breakthrough, which reignited investor interest in China's technology capabilities. On Monday, Goldman raised its 12-month target price for China's CSI300 index to 4,700 from 4,600.

A run-up in asking prices for newly listed homes in Britain has lost steam ahead of an increase in property purchase taxes, according to a survey published on Monday. Property website Rightmove said the average price of properties put on the market rose by 0.5% between Jan. 12 and Feb. 8 to 367,994 pounds ($464,666), a weaker-than-usual increase for the time of year and a slowdown from a strong rise of 1.7% in the previous four weeks. Colleen Babcock, Rightmove's head of partner marketing, said the March 31 end of the temporary tax break - for buyers in England and Northern Ireland of cheaper homes and for first-time buyers - was having an impact.