ZEW Survey Among Financial Market Experts -Most Important Issues for New German Government

Tax and finance are by far the most important issue for the new German government. Health care, education, labour market and social issues are slightly less important. These are the findings of a survey among 262 financial market experts conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim.

The experts were asked to name the issue which the German government should address first. About 38 percent of experts consider this to be tax and finance. About 21 percent of experts state that reforms in health care are important. Education, labour market and social issues are important for 13 percent of experts, respectively. Hardly any expert assumes that issues like, for instance, foreign policy, transport or security are among the top priorities.

Even though a great majority of experts regard tax and finance as the most important issue for the government, they oppose some measures like tax reduction plans of the new German government. About 48 percent of financial market experts consider tax reductions unreasonable with regard to the economic and fiscal situation. Only 35 percent are in favour of tax reductions. However, almost 50 percent of experts are convinced that the new government is going to realise its tax promise. Only about 30 percent expect that the taxes will not be reduced.

For further information please contact

Matthias Köhler, E-mail: koehler@zew.de