Merkel Bloc Ready to Suspend Debt Limit For One More Year
- CDU/CSU caucus sees need for continued budget flexibility
- Caucus chief says spending splurge cannot continue forever
Angela Merkel speaks at the Chancellery in Berlin on Sept. 2.
Photographer: Markus Schreiber/AFP via Getty Images
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s parliamentary caucus has backed plans allowing for further extraordinary deficit spending next year as the coronavirus continues to batter Europe’s biggest economy.
The ongoing crisis requires continued room for budgetary maneuver, lawmakers from Merkel’s Christian Democrat-led bloc agreed at a meeting Wednesday in Berlin. As part of a massive stimulus push, Germany in March abandoned its long-standing policy of running balanced budgets and temporarily suspended constitutional limits designed to keep debt in check. That paved the way for new borrowing this year of around 218 billion euros ($257 billion).