(Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said an economic stimulus program her ruling coalition is seeking to agree on in coming days should be focused on innovation and sustainable industries.
“We will decide on a growth program in the coming week that should help the economy to get back on track and grow,” Merkel said Saturday in her weekly podcast. “The trick will be to do it in such as way as to give a boost both to innovation and sustainable industries, so that we also become strong in the sectors of the future.”
Merkel is preparing a second phase of stimulus of between 50 billion euros ($56 billion) and 100 billion euros to turbo-charge the economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis, a person with knowledge of the matter said last week. The German government expects the economy to contract 6.3% this year.
Merkel and her coalition leaders are due to meet Tuesday in Berlin to thrash out the details of the program. Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and his Social Democrat group want to spend at the upper end of the range, while Merkel's ruling conservative block is pushing to avoid too much debt, the person said.
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