Is Japanification the New Normal? yes.
Germany needs €452bn public investment after lost decadePoor mobile coverage and red tape in building out roads are on entrepreneurs' laundry list of complaints
18.11.2019
 Photo: Shutterstock
Germany requires €452 billion in public investments to modernise its infrastructure after doing too little for decades, the country's top union and industry leaders said on Monday.
Europe's largest economy, which narrowly escaped recession in the third quarter, now requires massive funds to catch up, become more competitive and boost its growth potential, said the study commissioned by the union federation, DGB, and the industry federation, BDI.
The country, famed for autobahns without speed limits and high-tech engineering, ranked fifth-to-last out of 28 EU countries in terms of providing digital public services, according to the European Commission. Poor mobile coverage and red tape in building out roads or wind energy are also on entrepreneurs' laundry list of complaints.
After years of fixing its public accounts, it was now time to put investments in the forefront again, helping to fuel growth and living up to Germany's responsibility in Europe, said Michael Huether, director at the Cologne-based Institute of the German Economy, one of the two think tanks that drafted the paper.
After finance minister Olaf Scholz gained some reprieve last week with marginally better-than-expected growth, the topic is now back in the limelight, with two influential organisations such as the DGB and the BID joining forces to urge more spending.
"The fact that we put our heads together, were driven by concern over lacking investment, and commissioned our economic institutes to back that up scientifically, shows that this is a real concern," said Dieter Kempf, head of the powerful industry lobby BDI.
©2019 Bloomberg L.P. |
