German balanced budget policy should not be a fetish: Bundesbank chief

Reuters

Published Dec 13, 2019 02:47PM ET

German balanced budget policy should not be a fetish: Bundesbank chief

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany does not need an economic stimulus package and its 'black zero' balanced budget policy is useful for achieving sound finances but should not become a fetish, the head of the national central bank told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

"As a political budgetary objective, the black zero fulfils the pedagogical purpose of ensuring sound finances. This has been achieved so far. Of course, the black zero should not be turned into a fetish," Jens Weidmann said in the interview published in the newspaper's online edition.