Nearly a month after a court ruling left a hole in Germany’s 2024 budget, the government in Berlin introduced a new spending plan that included cuts in programs to address climate change, but confirmed its commitment to 8 billion euros ($8.6 billion) in direct military aid to Ukraine, the New York Times reported. The new budget will comply with the constitutional rules against taking on new debt, the government said. "We are forging ahead with the climate-neutral transformation of our country. We are strengthening social cohesion.

The German government will not be able to finalise its 2024 budget before the end of the year, a senior ruling party official said on Thursday, as a fractious coalition tries to narrow differences on fixing a budget hole, Reuters reported. "This is however not a crisis," German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said, playing down the need to get the budget through parliament before the end of the year. "I have realised that the coalition partners have very ambitious timetables," Lindner said on Thursday in Brussels.

Spanish Economy Minister Nadia Calvino expressed hope an agreement on the reform of EU fiscal rules could be clinched as soon as Thursday evening, while her German counterpart said he thought a deal was possible this week, Reuters reported. EU finance ministers are discussing changes to the rules on Thursday and Friday, aiming to agree on a joint position that would then be negotiated with the European Parliament early in 2024. Spain holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Germany's coalition partners intensified efforts on Wednesday to find a way to plug a 17-billion-euro ($18.3 billion) hole in next year's budget after failing to resolve the crisis overnight, increasing uncertainty about financial plans in Europe's biggest economy, Reuters reported. The failure of talks between coalition leaders before Wednesday means it is unlikely parliament will approve a 2024 budget by the end of the year, leaving in limbo spending plans from climate projects to benefits and for local authorities.

A German court has called upon the lawyer of former Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek, who has been on the run since the implosion of the German payments company, to testify next Wednesday in Germany's biggest post-war fraud trial, Reuters reported. Wirecard became the first-ever DAX member to file for insolvency in 2020, owing creditors almost $4 billion, after disclosing a 1.9 billion euro ($2.13 billion) hole in its accounts.

German inflation eased more than expected in November, falling to its lowest level since June 2021 due to a decline in energy prices, data from the federal statistics office showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The inflation rate fell to 2.3% in November. German consumer prices, harmonised to compare with other European Union countries, had risen by 3.0% year-on-year in October. A 4.5% year-on-year drop in energy prices had a particularly dampening effect on inflation in November, the statistics office said, a so-called base effect due to the very high cost of energy in November 2022.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged lawmakers on Tuesday to override Germany’s borrowing limits for a fourth consecutive year, allowing his government to take on billions of euros in fresh debt to modernize his country’s economy despite a budget crisis triggered by a constitutional court ruling, the New York Times reported. “It would be a grave, unforgivable mistake to neglect the modernization of our country in the face of all these acute challenges,” Mr. Scholz told Parliament, citing persistently high energy prices and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

The German government has imposed a freeze on most new spending commitments in what officials on Tuesday said was a necessary step as Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition grapples with a deepening budget crisis, Reuters reported. The government's spending plans were thrown into disarray by a court ruling last week that blocked the government from transferring 60 billion euros ($65 billion) in unused funds from the pandemic towards green initiatives and could starve some German industry of support to keep it competitive in a weak economy.

Transferring back money from Germany's Climate Transformation fund after a top court ruling causes a chain reaction, as the now-cancelled 60-billion-euro in funds leverage far more capital, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. "These funds are not an add-on that one can carelessly do without ... the loss to the economy if investments were not made now would be even greater," Habeck told a news conference in the city of Jena. The government was now preparing and discussing at high speed how to set up its budget in light of the ruling and the missing funds.

The German government pledged Monday to invest 4 billion euros ($4.37 billion) in African green energy projects until 2030, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz saying that countries in Africa should benefit more from their wealth of raw materials, the Associated Press reported. Scholz discussed the pledge at a news conference on the G20 Compact with Africa summit taking place in Berlin. He did not mention any specific projects but said the materials used in green energy should be processed in the African nations they come from. “This creates jobs and prosperity in these countries,” Scholz said.