IMF Urges Germany to Boost Infrastructure Investments Tenfold

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government should raise infrastructure investments tenfold compared with a blueprint laid out in the 2014-17 budget plan to help euro-region members such as Italy, the International Monetary Fund said.

Germany has leeway to raise spending on items such as road and bridge maintenance by half a percentage point of gross domestic product per year over four years, equating to more than 50 billion euros ($67.6 billion), without violating its debt reduction commitments, the IMF said in a regular report on the German economy. Merkel’s government plans to spend 5 billion euros through 2017 to fix decaying infrastructure.