Germany lifts government borrowing ban for 2023 amid budget chaos

The lower house of Germany’s parliament approved on Friday the 2023 supplementary budget, with the suspension of a self-imposed cap on borrowing after a constitutional court ruling last month tore up the government’s spending plans.

The budget was approved with 392 votes in favour and 274 against. It is expected to be voted on in the upper house in the afternoon.

The decision on the debt brake suspension required an absolute majority in the Bundestag, with more than half of the members voting in favour. There were 414 votes in favour, 242 against it, and nine abstentions.

The government justified the suspension of the constitutionally enshrined debt brake, which limits net debt borrowing to 0.35% of GDP, by saying the war in Ukraine constituted an emergency situation.

In the past few weeks, the government has scrambled to find a way to accommodate the court ruling that blocked the transfer of unused funds from the pandemic to green investment, blowing a 60-billion-euro ($65.76-billion) hole in its finances.

via Reuters

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