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EUROPE

Merkel aiming to reschedule euro debt fund payments

Chancellor Angela Merkel will argue at a key European summit Thursday for Germany's payments into a euro bailout fund to be rescheduled, a government source said, amid domestic criticism over Berlin's contribution.

Merkel aiming to reschedule euro debt fund payments
Photo: DPA

On Monday, finance ministers from the 17 countries that share the euro struck a deal to set up a €700-billion ($990-billion) permanent fund from 2013, replacing an existing smaller pot for debt-laden economies.

Of this €700 billion, €80 billion would come in the form of cash payments, with the rest being loan guarantees. As Europe’s biggest economy, Germany was set to contribute €22 billion in cash to this fund.

Originally, Germany was to provide half of its portion in 2013 and the rest in three installments over three years.

But Merkel has suggested offering five chunks of €4.4 billion over five years, reducing the pressure on the budget in 2013, the year of the next federal election, said a government official who asked not to be named.

EU leaders are poised to agree the exact details at a two-day summit in Brussels starting Thursday.

Christian Lindner, general secretary of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), junior partners in Merkel’s coalition government, said that the “last word” had not been spoken on Germany’s contribution to the bailout fund.

“For the FDP, it seems to weigh too heavily on the German budget,” Lindner told mass circulation daily Bild.

AFP/mry

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ECONOMY

How is Denmark’s economy handling inflation and rate rises?

Denmark's economy is now expected to avoid a recession in the coming years, with fewer people losing their jobs than expected, despite high levels of inflation and rising interest rates, The Danish Economic Council has said in a new report.

How is Denmark's economy handling inflation and rate rises?

The council, led by four university economics professors commonly referred to as “the wise men” or vismænd in Denmark, gave a much rosier picture of Denmark’s economy in its spring report, published on Tuesday, than it did in its autumn report last year. 

“We, like many others, are surprised by how employment continues to rise despite inflation and higher interest rates,” the chair or ‘chief wise man’,  Carl-Johan Dalgaard, said in a press release.

“A significant drop in energy prices and a very positive development in exports mean that things have gone better than feared, and as it looks now, the slowdown will therefore be more subdued than we estimated in the autumn.”

In the English summary of its report, the council noted that in the autumn, market expectations were that energy prices would remain at a high level, with “a real concern for energy supply shortages in the winter of 2022/23”.

That the slowdown has been more subdued, it continued was largely due to a significant drop in energy prices compared to the levels seen in late summer 2022, and compared to the market expectations for 2023.  

The council now expects Denmark’s GDP growth to slow to 1 percent in 2023 rather than for the economy to shrink by 0.2 percent, as it predicted in the autumn. 

In 2024, it expects the growth rate to remain the same as in 2003, with another year of 1 percent GDP growth. In its autumn report it expected weaker growth of 0.6 percent in 2024.

What is the outlook for employment? 

In the autumn, the expert group estimated that employment in Denmark would decrease by 100,000 people towards the end of the 2023, with employment in 2024  about 1 percent below the estimated structural level. 

Now, instead, it expects employment will fall by just 50,000 people by 2025.

What does the expert group’s outlook mean for interest rates and government spending? 

Denmark’s finance minister Nikolai Wammen came in for some gentle criticism, with the experts judging that “the 2023 Finance Act, which was adopted in May, should have been tighter”.  The current government’s fiscal policy, it concludes “has not contributed to countering domestic inflationary pressures”. 

The experts expect inflation to stay above 2 percent in 2023 and 2024 and not to fall below 2 percent until 2025. 

If the government decides to follow the council’s advice, the budget in 2024 will have to be at least as tight, if not tighter than that of 2023. 

“Fiscal policy in 2024 should not contribute to increasing demand pressure, rather the opposite,” they write. 

The council also questioned the evidence justifying abolishing the Great Prayer Day holiday, which Denmark’s government has claimed will permanently increase the labour supply by 8,500 full time workers. 

“The council assumes that the abolition of Great Prayer Day will have a short-term positive effect on the labour supply, while there is no evidence of a long-term effect.” 

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