Majority of Europe Wishes to Exit Austerity, not Germany

Germany has ignored calls from its euro zone partners for more economic stimulus by tabling plans to cut spending and balance its budget ahead of schedule on the eve of an EU summit dedicated to growth.

Wolfgang Schauble, German finance minister, said on Wednesday that his budget for 2014, involving spending cuts of more than 5 billion euro to trim the total below 300 billion euro, was “a strong signal for Europe”.

The plan means Germany will reach budget balance in 2015, a year earlier than required under the “debt brake” written into its constitution.

He described the 2014 spending plan as “growth-friendly consolidation”, intended to prove to the rest of the euro zone that “consistent sustainable budgeting and growth are not mutually exclusive”.

Philipp Rosler, economy minister, said Germany’s public finances were the “envy of the world”.

via CNBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza