Germany’s Finance Minister Sees Economic Recovery, DPA Reports

Olaf Scholz, Germany's finance minister, speaks in the Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020. Germany plans significant new borrowing next year to fuel the recovery of Europes largest economy from the fallout of the coronavirus and may continue to rely on debt spending in the future.

(Bloomberg) -- German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said a slight economic recovery is on the horizon thanks to robust state aid preventing much of the potential fallout of the pandemic, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.

He credited Germany’s fiscal stimulus and the Berlin government’s shift on crisis aid at the EU level with saving jobs, the German newswire quoted Scholz as telling a virtual meeting of his Social Democratic Party.

Scholz, the SPD candidate in Germany’s Sept. 26 election to replace Angela Merkel as chancellor, has prodded the European Commission to ease rules on government aid to companies during the pandemic. Some critics say Germany’s deep pockets risk worsening economic imbalances across the continent.

Without state aid, the economic picture would be bleaker, Scholz said. By the election, the pandemic will be largely over and Germans will be in good spirits -- and generous state-aid programs will be considered a success story, he said.