Given that the country was still struggling with Eastern "re-unification", Germany entered at a punishingly high exchange rate.

While Mexico's recession has been deeper than expected and unemployment remains punishingly high, exports have surged.

The eurozone periphery has suffered punishingly high sovereign bond yields.

Americans pay punishingly high premiums, much of which land in lawyers' bank accounts.

Now it wanted to let the pound sink to a more realistic level that wouldn't require the British to apply punishingly high interest rates to preserve.

The sun never climbed quite as punishingly high in the zenith, and it rained mote often.

In contrast, the tie bet has a punishingly high house edge of 14.4%.

Unemployment and inflation are both exceeding the Government's projections, and interest rates on loans have remained punishingly high.

Most businesses simply cannot borrow, while others pay punishingly high interest rates.

New Jersey has long had punishingly high property tax rates.