The unfavourable balance of foreign direct investment plays a major role in the ongoing debate on the quality of Germany as a business location. High direct investment outflows and low inflows compared with the United Kingdom and France are often seen as a sign of weakness of Germany as a...

Germany is often criticized for its large current account surpluses. The surpluses are caused by differences in economic growth between Germany and its major trading partners, the innovative strength of German enterprises, as well as improved relative price competitiveness and a successful...

The emergence of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) and some spectacular investments of these funds in recent years have caused widespread attention on international financial markets. Most SWFs are domiciled in Arabian countries, East Asia and Russia. Their low transparency led to concerns that SWFs...