Medical and Hospital News
TRADE WARS
Germany passes long-delayed budget with vast new borrowing
Germany passes long-delayed budget with vast new borrowing
by AFP Staff Writers
Berlin (AFP) Sept 18, 2025

German lawmakers passed a long-delayed 2025 budget on Thursday that will allow extra borrowing to fix infrastructure and beef up the armed forces, as tensions with Russia rise.

This year's budget was supposed to have been signed off long ago but the process stalled after last year's collapse of former chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition in the face of a furious row over public spending.

Following February elections, conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz took power pledging to ramp up spending on the armed forces and to fix Germany's ageing roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

The budget passed Thursday provides for 502.5 billion euros ($595 billion) in expenditure in 2025 -- some 25 billion euros more than the previous year.

New borrowing in Europe's top economy is forecast to be 81.8 billion euros -- higher than envisaged under the previous government's plans.

Speaking before MPs voted on the budget, Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil told parliament that the government "places absolute priority on ensuring that economic growth returns to Germany, that jobs here are secured".

"This is the most important issue for the people in this country," added the minister from the centre-left SPD party, the junior coalition partners to Merz's centre-right CDU/CSU bloc.

Germany's economy has been stuck in a long downturn but there is hope that increased public spending could boost growth, if combined with key structural reforms.

Without an official 2025 spending plan, the government had been operating under emergency budget measures that allow officials to cover existing obligations but not to take on new financial commitments.

The passage of the budget should open the way for the coalition to start ramping up spending in earnest.

- Infrastructure worries -

In what was dubbed a fiscal "bazooka", Merz earlier this year amended Germany's strict debt rules to allow for greater military spending and established a fund for infrastructure spending.

Some critics have pointed out that there has not been a flood of spending since the rule change, and there have also been broader concerns over the infrastructure fund, which is being financed through debt.

A recent analysis from German think tank the Institute for Economic Research (IFO) pointed out that existing infrastructure investments were being shifted out of the main budget to the new fund.

The fund was intended to be in addition to infrastructure investments from the normal budget -- but that is not happening, the institute said.

With the 2025 budget passed, attention will now turn to balancing the budget for next year and beyond, which has already sparked tensions between the coalition partners.

The CDU/CSU and the SPD, seeking to find ways to plug a growing budget gap, have been openly clashing over Merz's plans for cuts in what he says is an "unaffordable" welfare system.

sr/fz/jxb

Deutsche Bank

Related Links
Global Trade News

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
TRADE WARS
Europe slow to match economic rivals US, China: Draghi
Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Sept 16, 2025
The European Union is "failing to match the speed of change" in the United States and China and must act urgently on economic reforms to avoid falling further behind, a key report's author said Tuesday. One year after former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi delivered stark warnings - and hundreds of recommendations - in a milestone 400-page report for the bloc, he urged Europe to break its "complacency". While Draghi welcomed the EU executive's push on competitiveness, which Brussels h ... read more

TRADE WARS
Global search and rescue system gets recognition as real lifesaver

Spain to hold state funeral for 2024 flood victims

Morocco earthquake survivors protest to demand housing aid

UK government looks to military sites to house migrants

TRADE WARS
EU chief's plane hit by suspected Russian GPS jamming in Bulgaria

USGS introduces first fully integrated national geologic map

Sharp rise in GPS jamming in aviation over Baltic Sea: Sweden

Bulgaria won't probe suspected Russian GPS jamming of EU chief plane: PM

TRADE WARS
AI helps UK woman rediscover lost voice after 25 years

New Ethiopian fossil find reveals unknown Australopithecus species alongside early Homo

Scrumped fruit shaped ape evolution and human fondness for alcohol

Cold climate origins of primates challenge long held tropical forest theory

TRADE WARS
Australian authorities investigate influencer over croc wrestling

Australia approves chlamydia vaccine for koalas

Global genome moonshot targets 150000 species in four years

'Roasted alive': Greek wildlife suffers as climate changes

TRADE WARS
Scientists sequence avian flu genome found in Antarctica

New York declares total war on prolific rat population

Chikungunya in China: What you need to know

China probes Wuhan ex-mayor who presided over Covid response

TRADE WARS
Hong Kong LGBTQ rights setback takes emotional toll

Hong Kong legislature to vote on same-sex partnerships bill

China's Xi at centre of world stage after days of high-level hobnobbing

Made in China? The remarkable tale of Venice's iconic winged lion

TRADE WARS
Pentagon chief makes surprise visit to Puerto Rico

Hegseth, top general visit Puerto Rico amid Trump drug cartel fight

US strike 'very clear' message to drug cartels: Pentagon chief

Trump says 11 dead in US strike on drug-carrying boat from Venezuela

TRADE WARS
Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.