German cabinet backs balanced-budget plan for post-Brexit continuity

BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet agreed on Wednesday to stick to plans for a balanced budget over the next four years, a senior government official said, holding course despite the shock of Britain's vote to leave the European Union. The plans for slowly raising state spending without taking on net new debt up to 2020 are meant to send a message of "reliability and continuity" after Britain's decision to leave the 28-member bloc, government officials have said. The cabinet approved final details of the 2017 budget and financing plans up to 2020. Under the plans, Berlin expects to reduce its total public debt to less than 60 percent of gross domestic product in 2020 for the first time since 2002, meeting a criterion set out in the EU's Stability and Growth Pact. -Reuters