Germany’s Governing coalition agreed to subsidise energy prices for heavy industry over the next three years as it tries to breathe new life into a stubbornly slow economy that is weighing on Europe’s performance. Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he and other coalition leaders agreed Thursday evening to introduce an electricity price of about 5 euro cents per kilowatt hour starting January 1, through 2028, to “support companies that use a lot of electricity and face international competition.”
Talks on the plan with the European Union’s executive commission are near-complete and “we assume we will get permission for this,” Merz said. The German economy, Europe’s biggest, has shrunk for the past two years and has not seen significant growth for much longer. The conservative Merz’s coalition Government with the centre-left Social Democrats has made revitalising it a priority since taking office in early May.
Still, results haven’t shown through yet, with gross domestic product stagnating in the third quarter. This week, the Government’s panel of independent economic advisers forecast it will grow by an unimpressive 0.9 per cent next year after edging up 0.2 per cent this year. The country’s economy, which is heavy on manufacturing and exports, has been held back by multiple factors including high energy prices, competition from Chinese producers of autos and industrial machinery, a lack of skilled workers and excessive bureaucracy.
