Germany on collision course with Brussels as exports climb higher
GERMANY is set to clash with the European Commission (EC) after it exported a record €103.4bn (£75.25bn) worth of goods and services in July, taking the country’s trade surplus an all-time high of €25bn.
The EC has already warned Germany this year that it needs to take more decisive policy action to tackle its surplus, which is in breach of Europe’s Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called on Germany to boost fiscal spending to gear the economy towards domestically generated growth, raise wages and make its exports less competitive.
This would help the competitiveness of other Eurozone countries which cannot afford to lift government spending, such as France, Spain and Italy, the IMF says.