Merkel under pressure to spend Germany's record budget surplus

End obsession with balancing the books, and cut taxes and boost infrastructure instead, government told

Angela Merkel's government is coming under increasing pressure to spend some of its record budget surplus on tax cuts and investment in Germany's ageing infrastructure.

Despite months of weakening economic growth, the German state had a surplus of a13.5bn (11.6bn) of income over expenditure at the end of 2019, thanks to increased tax revenues and a low interest rate.