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Germany’s Finance Minister Sees Economic Recovery, DPA Reports

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said a slight economic recovery is on the horizon.

Germany’s Finance Minister Sees Economic Recovery, DPA Reports
Olaf Scholz, Germany's finance minister, wears a protective face mask in the Bundestag in Berlin, Germany. (Photographer: Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz/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.

Germany’s Finance Minister Sees Economic Recovery, DPA Reports

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.

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