Economy

Germany’s Habeck Cancels COP28 Trip to Focus on Budget Talks

Published

11 months ago

December 3, 2023

(Bloomberg) — German Economy Minister Robert Habeck canceled a trip to the COP28 climate conference and the Middle East to attend talks in Berlin on solving the country’s budget crisis.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz requested that Habeck stay “in order to make further progress in the talks on the 2024 budget following the ruling of the Constitutional Court,” an Economy Ministry spokeswoman said in a statement Sunday. Scholz, Habeck and Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the pro-business Free Democrats had talks on Sunday evening and are expected to continue them throughout the week.

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Germany has been in a budget crisis since mid-November, when the country’s top court ruled that the allocation of €60 billion ($65 billion) in unused Covid-19 pandemic aid for climate protection to special funds outside the regular budget was unconstitutional. The Finance Ministry froze the current budget and the two largest special funds, and the government declared an emergency for 2023 in order to restore this year’s budget.

Lindner has identified a €17 billion gap for next year and favors plugging it with cuts in social welfare spending. Scholz’s Social Demorats and Habeck’s Greens want to suspend the so-called debt brake, a limit on net new federal borrowing, in 2024 and take up new debt to cover the shortfall in order to invest in Germany’s clean-energy transition.

Habeck, who’s also vice chancellor in Scholz’s government and in charge of climate affairs, had planned to attend the UN climate conference in Dubai on Tuesday, followed by visits to Oman, Saudi Arabia and Israel. The trip was postponed until next possible date, the spokeswoman said.

(Updates in the second and third paragraphs with latest on budget talks.)

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Economy

September merchandise trade deficit narrows to $1.3 billion: Statistics Canada

Published

4 hours ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the country’s merchandise trade deficit narrowed to $1.3 billion in September as imports fell more than exports.

The result compared with a revised deficit of $1.5 billion for August. The initial estimate for August released last month had shown a deficit of $1.1 billion.

Statistics Canada says the results for September came as total exports edged down 0.1 per cent to $63.9 billion.

Exports of metal and non-metallic mineral products fell 5.4 per cent as exports of unwrought gold, silver, and platinum group metals, and their alloys, decreased 15.4 per cent. Exports of energy products dropped 2.6 per cent as lower prices weighed on crude oil exports.

Meanwhile, imports for September fell 0.4 per cent to $65.1 billion as imports of metal and non-metallic mineral products dropped 12.7 per cent.

In volume terms, total exports rose 1.4 per cent in September while total imports were essentially unchanged in September.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.

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