Berlin (dpa) – Germany’s coalition leaders restarted discussions on Wednesday over a huge economic stimulus package to help combat the financial damage done by the coronavirus outbreak.
Late-night talks in Berlin on Tuesday did not reach a conclusion, and the sides pursued talks within their own party delegations on Wednesday. Joint talks are planned for later in the day.
The package – possibly worth 80 billion euros (89 billion dollars) – would come on top of a huge coronavirus budget passed in March.
Representatives of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, made up of the conservative CDU and CSU parties and the centre-left SPD, have key difference to iron out, although few details emerged on Tuesday on what kind of progress had been made.
Some of the measures under debate are funds of up to 3 million euros
per company to subsidize losses; premiums to encourage people to buy cars, thereby supporting the country’s all-important car industry; a 300-euro payment per child to support families; additional funding for municipalities as they deal with growing unemployment; and a possible 28 billion euros in investment for infrastructure projects.
The parties disagree on how much new debt the government should incur in the process of stimulating the economy.
Markus Soeder, the head of the CSU, said that no more than 100 billion euros of new debt should be incurred, a limit strongly rejected by the SPD.
The German economy is expected to contract by 6.6 per cent this year, the Ifo research institute said late last month.
Be the first to comment on "German coalition leaders restart talks on virus stimulus package"