Germany to get ‘investment booster’ before summer break, finance minister says #NewsGerman

By Maria Martinez

BERLIN (Reuters) -German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil promised swift measures to boost investment on Tuesday amid global trade uncertainty.

“It is right that we will launch an investment booster before the summer break, which can be the right and fastest-acting response to the reluctance to invest,” he said at the Eastern German Economic Forum in Berlin.

Germany was the only member of the G7 advanced economies that failed to grow for the last two years, and tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump will deal a major blow to its export-oriented economy.

As part of government measures to revive growth, Klingbeil mentioned tax reforms, depreciation allowances of 30% over the next three years, and a 500 million euro ($562.2 million) infrastructure fund that he called “the largest modernisation effort in decades”.

The government has also pledged to reduce the bureaucratic burden, aiming to cut administrative costs by 25% and compliance expenses by 10 billion euros through a “one in, two out” rule for new regulations.

“Probably you’re all thinking right now, this is not the first politician to express such a goal of reducing bureaucracy costs, and you’re right, we will be measured by this.”

He said the new coalition had a “historical responsibility” to return the German economy to growth.

“If we don’t manage to make life simpler again for companies and people in this country, then those who might question the rule of law might come,” Klingbeil said, in reference to the rise in polls of the extreme right party Alternative for Germany (AfD).

($1 = 0.8894 euros)

(Reporting by Maria Martinez, editing by Rachel More, Kirsten Donovan)