The former member of the German Council of Economic Experts – an academic body advising German policy makers on questions of economic policy -, Claus Köhler, has criticised the position of the Federal Ministry of Finance on the German trade and current account surplus. Köhler was formerly member of the executive board of the Deutsche Bundesbank, too. His critique as well as his economic policy proposals correspond with the position of the U.S. Treasury and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In response to our article on the topic (see here), Köhler argued, that Germany signed the regulations of the European Semester, too. Therein, Köhler writes, “is a Scoreboard for the Surveillance of macroecomomic imbalances. According to it, the current account surplus shall not exceed 6 per cent of GDP in the average of the recent three years.” The German current account surplus has been far higher.
Köhler requests the German Government to take fiscal and economic countermeasures. “Our government would need to enhance public spending or reduce taxes to increase investment and private consumption and thereby decrease the share of the current account in GDP. But such considerations are apparently alien to the Federal Ministry of Finance.”
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