Greece / AFP Greece on Saturday demanded “explanations” from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after Wikileaks said the lender sought a crisis “event” to push the indebted nation into concluding talks over its reforms. IMF officials, in an internal discussion, allegedly voiced exasperation with Greece on its slow pace of reform, complaining Athens only moved decisively when faced with the …

BERLIN / Reuters Germany’s spending on social security could get out of hand as the population ages, a budget specialist in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives warned, contrasting current optimism over plans for no new net borrowing until 2020. Buoyed by record-low unemployment, rising wages and steady economic growth, the German government agreed last month to its biggest increase in the …

WARSAW / Reuters Central European manufacturing continued to grow in March as a jump in Polish factory activity managed to offset slower growth from Germany, the region’s main trade partner. The former communist countries of the European Union’s eastern wing rely on demand and investment from richer western Europe, which over the past two decades has lifted their living standards. …