Germany should expect its growth rate to slacken amid the developing global slowdown, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in parliament in Berlin Tuesday as he introduced his federal budget, and quoted by dpa. The 302.2-billion-euro (386-billion-dollar) budget for 2013 includes 18.8 billion euros in new federal borrowing, a sharp cut from 32 billion euros in the current year. "Economic development is slackening," Schaeuble said, adding that Europe and the world would still be dealing with the euro crisis in the months ahead. He insisted that past economic reforms would make Germany more resilient to a downturn. "It will hit German enterprises less than was the case in earlier years," he said. "Germany has become a lot more shock-resistant." When state and local borrowing are added, Germany's new debt next year will be below the EU ceiling of 3 per cent of gross domestic product.
