The Bundestag is once again about money: The debates on the budget are continuing, and they are all in the sign of the increasingly noticeable downturn in the economy. The German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) has called for a multi-billion government investment program to prevent a potential recession.
"The investment program should be long-term 15 years and 30 billion euros of additional public investment, especially in infrastructure, education and innovation," said DIW President Marcel Fratzscher the newspapers that belong to the media group Funke. The federal government should not wait until a recession has solidified.
Even the black zero - a budget without new debt - is not an end in itself, but necessary in good times, so that the state has the ability to stabilize in bad times, said Fratzscher.
"We are now in bad times and it is high time for politics to act." Finance Minister Olaf Scholz had said on Tuesday to be prepared in the event of a crisis, but "it must then be there for now." The German economy shrank in the second quarter. Experts also expect a decline in the current third quarter, with which Germany would officially be in recession.