German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck has today defended plans for record borrowing in his draft 2010 budget, saying the fiscal largesse was necessary to counter Germany’s deepest post war recession.
The official will present the draft 2010 budget to cabinet later today. He told German radio the planned federal net new borrowing of a record 86.1 bln euros next year was a “one-off and hopefully remains a one-off.”
In a seperate interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily, Steinbrueck said Germany was unlikely to reduce its budget deficit below the EU’s cap of 3% of GDP before 2013.
