Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on November 10, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleGermany must reform to regain competitiveness, says Economy Minister. Increased spending and energy policy changes are crucial.
BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany must undertake sweeping reforms to regain its economic competitiveness, Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said on Monday, warning that the country is mired in a structural crisis.
"The situation is serious," Reiche said in a keynote speech in Berlin, adding that Germany had fallen behind internationally.
Though the stagnant German economy is likely to regain some momentum over the next two years, Reiche said this recovery would largely be driven by government plans to sharply increase spending on infrastructure and defence.
Critics have argued that the reforms by the conservative-led government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz are slower and less far-reaching than initially expected.
In her keynote, Reiche ruled out a quick return to export-led growth and called for modernisation of the state apparatus, fewer regulations for businesses, and tighter controls on public debt.
Reiche also urged a market-oriented energy policy, noting German firms pay up to five times more for gas than their U.S. counterparts.
(Reporting by Christian Kraemer, Writing by Friederike Heine, editing by Thomas Escritt)
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures the total economic output of a country. It represents the value of all finished goods and services produced within a country's borders in a specific time period.
Economic growth refers to an increase in the production of goods and services in an economy over a period of time, typically measured by the rise in GDP.
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