The Cabinet approved the supplementary budget. It involves putting the money in a fund that has been renamed as a climate and transformation fund. This fund will be used for projects to combat climate change and improve Germany’s infrastructure.
Christian Lindner, Finance Minister, stated in a statement that 60 billion euros were needed to invest in the future. This is despite the fact that the economy is still recovering from the coronavirus epidemic.
Lindner stated that new borrowing in this year’s will be at the same level as the previous government had planned, which is 240.2 billion euros.
He stated that no new debt was being taken on and that the additional funding is only being used to cover so-far unutilized credit authorization.
Lindner and his probusiness Free Democrats, which are the smallest of the three parties in Scholz’s center-left coalition, have ruled tax increases out and insist on observing rules that limit new debt. Those were suspended due to the pandemic.
The coalition also has ambitious plans to increase renewable energy use and invest in modernizing Germany’s digital infrastructure.
