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Merkel defends rescue package for German economy
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 14 - 01 - 2009

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said a new stimulus
package approved by her cabinet on Wednesday was the best response to
deal with the recession gripping Europe's biggest economy, reported dpa.
The 50-billion-euro (66-billion-dollar) rescue plan includes 18
billion euros in public investment, income tax cuts, increased family
benefits and incentives for car buyers.
Merkel told parliament that a key element of the package was to
save jobs and ensure that Germany emerged from the recession stronger
than it was before.
"We should use this crisis as a chance," the chancellor said,
warning that Germany faced a difficult year ahead.
The fiscal stimulus comes on the heels of another package worth 35
billion euros that was approved in November, but which was seen as
insufficient to pull Germany out of recession.
The chancellor, who faces a general election this September, said
a 100-billion-euro programme of credit for industry would help
businesses that were unable to obtain long-term finance from banks.
Economists gave a cautious welcome to the plan, but expressed
disappointment that the income tax cuts would not come into force
until July 1, pending parliamentary approval next month.
The German economy contracted by up to 2 per cent in the final
quarter of 2008 and analysts expect it to shrink around the same
level this year as export m.= M or}{?+9
!! +9employment rose for the first time in 33 months in December,
with 7.6 per cent of the workforce jobless.
Opposition parties have criticized the stimulus package as too
feeble, calling it a patchwork of compromises between Merkel's
conservatives and her centre-left Social Democratic coalition
partners.
German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said in a newspaper
interview that he expected Germany's net public debt to rise above 4
per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 as a result of the
stimulus plan.
This would place it above the 3 per cent ceiling set by the
European Union for membership in the eurozone.
To reassure critics, the coalition parties agreed to change the
constitution so that in normal times, future governments cannot
increase the debt by more than 0.5 per cent of GDP.


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