Germany's Cabinet of Ministers approved the 2025 budget on Wednesday after months of debate, Reuters reported, citing government sources, UNN writes.
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It is indicated that this happened against the background that the gap of 17 billion euros between projected expenditures and revenues still needs to be covered.
The German government, as noted, hopes to close the gap with additional revenues when the economy picks up. The eurozone's largest economy overcame recession at the beginning of the year, but growth was slower than expected.
Germany's budget for 2025 includes a record 78 billion euros of investment, net borrowing of 43.8 billion euros, and a total budget size of 481 billion euros, while respecting the constitutional spending limit known as the debt brake.
"We are sticking to the debt brake, which makes us an anchor of stability in Europe," German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said on Wednesday.
The Cabinet of Ministers also approved an economic package that aims to accelerate the economy and lead it to additional growth of more than half a percentage point in 2025.
"With our growth initiative, we are giving an important impetus to economic policy to make Germany more attractive as a business location," Lindner said. - "New budgetary space can only be created through greater economic growth.
The budget for 2025 includes medium-term financial planning until 2028, the year when the special fund for the armed forces to meet NATO's minimum spending targets is due to expire.
"According to a draft budget seen by Reuters, next year's budget will be less generous to Ukraine as the government cuts military aid to the country to 4 billion euros from about 8 billion euros in 2024," the publication notes.
Germany, as noted, "expects that Ukraine will be able to finance the bulk of its military needs with $50 billion in loans from the Group of Seven, secured by the proceeds of frozen Russian assets". Therefore, as noted, "it hopes that the funds earmarked for Ukraine will not be fully utilized".
The German government also passed a supplementary budget for the current year on Wednesday with 11 billion euros of additional borrowing, bringing the total to 50.3 billion euros of net borrowing.
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