BERLIN: Germany's new coalition government will pass a supplementary budget on Monday to enable more public investments in the shift towards a greener and more digitalised economy, sources told Reuters on Thursday .
The debt-financed injection means that Berlin will now make nearly full use of the €240 billion debt ceiling originally granted by its parliament for 2021, the sources added.Depending on how much additional debt was needed to finance pandemic emergency measures in November and December, the new government could end up parking up to €80 billion in the climate fund for future investments, one of the sources said.
The budget manoeuvre, as agreed by the centre-left Social Democrats, the pro-spending Greens and the libertarian Free Democrats in their coalition deal, allows the parties to make the most of the suspension of Germany's debt brake prompted by the pandemic this year and next by beefing up the climate fund.