Topic summary
Schuldenbremse
Extracted from the Wikipedia article German balanced budget amendment.
Germany's balanced budget amendment, also referred to as the debt brake (German: Schuldenbremse), is a fiscal rule enacted in 2009 by the First Merkel cabinet, following the Swiss example. The law, which is in Article 109, paragraph 3 and Article 115 of the Basic Law, Germany's constitution, is designed to restrict structural budget deficits at the federal level and limit the issuance of government debt. The rule restricts annual structural deficits to 0.35% of GDP.