New Delhi, Nov. 16 -- Germany's governing coalition agreed to subsidize energy prices for heavy industry over the next three years as it tries to breathe new life into a stubbornly slow economy that is weighing on Europe's performance.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he and other coalition leaders agreed Thursday evening to introduce an electricity price of about 5 euro cents (6 U.S. cents) per kilowatt hour starting Jan. 1, through 2028, to "support companies that use a lot of electricity and face international competition."

Talks on the plan with the European Union's executive commission are near-complete and "we assume we will get permission for this," Merz said.

The German economy, Europe's biggest, has shrunk for the past two years...