Germany: probably won’t reach 2% defence spending goal this year

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany will likely not meet its goal of spending 2% of GDP on defence spending this year and it remains to be seen whether it will manage to do so next year, a government spokesperson said on Monday.

Berlin wants to reach the goal in this legislative period, the spokesperson told a regular government news conference, adding that Chancellor Olaf Scholz had not yet taken a position on discussions about increasing the NATO 2% spending target.

“It is true that we will probably not reach the 2% target this year – there are various indicators that play a role in this – even for next year it is open at this point in time,” the spokesperson said.

(Reporting by Rachel More and Paul Carrel)