Merkel Seeks Security Spending Boost in Budget Driven by Crises
- Schaeuble cites terror threat as Cabinet backs 2017 spending
- Infrastructure builders poised to benefit in 2.7% increase
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet backed spending increases for defense and infrastructure in a budget plan designed to address global risks and the refugee crisis that’s her biggest domestic challenge.
The blueprint, approved by ministers on Wednesday, foresees a 2.7 percent increase in spending next year and balanced federal budgets through 2020, according to the Finance Ministry. Defense is slated to get 6.8 percent more funding in 2017 compared with previous plans, while the biggest absolute increase is for social-welfare and labor-market programs. That includes spending to aid some 1 million refugees who came to Germany last year, the most since World War II.