By Maria Martinez and Christian Kraemer
BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's budget committee finalised the budget for 2025 with record investments to revive the economy and a strong commitment to defence spending, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Germany has been operating on a provisional budget this year after the former ruling coalition collapsed last November with no time to pass the 2025 spending plans. The budget finalised on Thursday will now be approved by parliament later this month.
The core budget, with total spending of 502.5 billion euros ($588.28 billion), includes 62.7 billion euros in investments, according to a document seen by Reuters, with only small changes from a draft passed by the cabinet before the summer recess.
The investment surge is possible thanks to a special 500 billion euro infrastructure fund and an exemption from debt rules for defence spending approved in March.
Adding additional investments from the infrastructure fund and from a 100-billion-euro special fund for defence created by former Chancellor Olaf Scholz following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the budget has a total size of 591 billion euros.
The core budget envisages borrowing of 81.7 billion euros in 2025, according to the document.
Total borrowing rises to 143.1 billion euros, adding 37.2 billion euros from the special infrastructure fund and 24.1 billion from the special fund for defence.
The right-wing AfD, the main opposition party in parliament, criticised the easing of Germany's "debt brake", which limits borrowing to 0.35% of GDP.
"The government cannot throw money at every problem in Germany," said AfD budget expert Michael Espendiller in Berlin on Friday. "That would not solve any problems, it only postpones them."
($1 = 0.8542 euros)
(Reporting by Maria Martinez and Christian Kraemer, editing by Thomas Escritt and Gareth Jones)
