Savings Banks President Ulrich Reuter calls for clear growth agenda and bold investments

“What Germany needs is new momentum. We must overcome the paralysing standstill, massively invest in our infrastructure and create a clear framework which will mobilise private capital”, said Ulrich Reuter, President of the German Savings Banks Association (DSGV) at the press conference on the economic forecast.

The calculations of the Savings Banks Finance Group had shown that the economic growth expected for the year 2025 would only amount to 0.2 percent, i.e. stagnation. At the same time, structural challenges such as the shortage of skilled labour and high production costs would remain unresolved. “The data are sobering. What we are dealing with is not a temporary period of weakness. Instead, our analysis has shown that the challenges are of a structural nature and call for sweeping reforms”, said Carsten Wesselmann, chief economist of the Cologne Kreissparkasse. He drew attention to the fact that, although inflation had decreased to 2.3 percent, core inflation remained too high. In addition, there were protectionist risks from the United States, which might additionally dampen growth.

The DSGV called for a reduction in bureaucracy so as to permit systematic investments in infrastructure projects. In this process, each new euro of debt must be matched by a permanent asset. “What we need is a policy which will make investments more attractive for private players and which, at the same time, will have the courage to tackle fundamental reforms”, explained DSGV President Reuter.

The Savings Banks Finance Group underlined its role as a reliable partner for investments in Germany. With a market share of 42 percent in loans to enterprises and in financing large-scale infrastructure projects, such as the stake in the network operator TransnetBW, the Savings Banks Finance Group was prepared to make its contribution. Reuter: “We believe in the future of this country and we will play an active part in shaping this future. This is not the time for promises and bad cheques. This is the time to address problems, to share burdens fairly and to invest in the future together.”