BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet approved on Wednesday a debt-financed supplementary budget of 60 billion euros ($71 billion) which will lift annual new borrowing to a record high of more than 240 billion euros this year, a government official said.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz also suggested a draft budget for next year with additional net new debt of 81.5 billion euros for which parliament will have to suspend a constitutional debt brake for a third year in a row, the official added.
The revised budget plans mean that Germany’s overall pandemic-related net new debt could exceed 450 billions euros from 2020 to 2022.
The budget plans underline Germany’s readiness to continue massive deficit spending in the COVID-19 pandemic as Berlin is struggling to contain a third wave of coronavirus cases linked to a more infectious variant.
($1 = 0.8455 euros)
(Reporting by Michael Nienaber and Holger Hansen, editing by Emma Thomasson)
