The German government will have "the highest net and gross new borrowing in the history of the Federal Republic" next year, the Christian Democratic Union's budget spokesman said on Wednesday.
In a Bloomberg Television interview in Berlin, Steffen Kampeter said that German government's net new borrowing may reach some 40 billion to 50 billion euros (52 billion to 65 billion U.S. dollars), while the gross borrowing will be close to 340 billion euros if the situation goes really bad.
Kampeter's assessment is bad news for his party leader, Chancellor Angela Merkel, who made deficit reduction and a return to a balanced budget a priority, according to the report of Bloomberg.
Merkel's popularity has already slumped amid international and domestic criticism over her unwillingness to spend more to mitigate what may become the worst recession since World War II in2009, an election year.
Merkel on Tuesday acknowledged for the first time that the current government stimulus measures "are not enough," and said that more steps will be taken in January. She indicated "a few billion" more would be spent on infrastructure development.
The German economy is experiencing a tough winter, according to the monthly bulletin published by the Bundesbank, or the German central bank, on Monday. The country's GDP may shrink by at least 3 percent next year, a post-World War II record, according to a forecast by German Economy Ministry.
Source:Xinhua
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