Government support is keeping roughly one in ten German companies afloat that would otherwise have gone bust during the coronavirus pandemic, the International Monetary Fund has found. In a report that on Tuesday laid bare the scale of economic damage masked by state aid, the Fund also warned that, once support was unwound, bankruptcy could soar, potentially weakening Germany's banks. German government support - broad-based and including guarantees, grants and waivers on filing for insolvency - has been among the most generous among western nations, according to a separate study by think tank Bruegel.