<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>With its judgement on the federal budget, the German Federal Constitutional Court has thrown the government’s financial planning into disarray. Important public investments are at stake, as the debt brake sets tight limits for the treasury and debt-financed shadow budgets. But the green transition requires public investment as the time horizons are short and the investment risk for technologies and international competition is high. A transformation and infrastructure fund (TIF) anchored in the constitution, combined with planning accelerations should be established in order to finance government investments while at the same time leaving the debt brake in the core budget untouched.</p>
</abstract>

With its judgement on the federal budget, the German Federal Constitutional Court has thrown the government’s financial planning into disarray. Important public investments are at stake, as the debt brake sets tight limits for the treasury and debt-financed shadow budgets. But the green transition requires public investment as the time horizons are short and the investment risk for technologies and international competition is high. A transformation and infrastructure fund (TIF) anchored in the constitution, combined with planning accelerations should be established in order to finance government investments while at the same time leaving the debt brake in the core budget untouched.

A General Government Transformation and Infrastructure Fund to Stabilise the Debt Brake

Wirtschaftsdienst

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Ein gesamtstaatlicher „Transformations- und Infrastrukturfonds“ zur Stabilisierung der Schuldenbremse

With its judgement on the federal budget, the German Federal Constitutional Court has thrown the government’s financial planning into disarray. Important...

A General Government Transformation and Infrastructure Fund to Stabilise the Debt Brake

Published Online: Jan 23, 2024

Page range: 14 - 20

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/wd-2024-0008

© 2024 Michael Hüther, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.