Our studio guest this week: Jörg Rocholl

Jörg Rocholl of the European School of Management and Technology talks to us about the success of the economic stimulus packages and the general economic outlook.DW-TV: Looks like spending the money received from the economic stimulus package isn’t quite as easy as it seems. For more we're joined by Jörg Rocholl of the European School of Management and Technology. Why is it taking so long? Jörg Rocholl: I think it's quite natural that it takes some time, there's a planning process that needs to be implemented there. Maybe there needs to be approval by state authorities to get everything started, so I think that it's natural to see that it takes more than a couple of months. DW-TV: So Greifswald there is representative for all the other regions? Jörg Rocholl: Right. DW-TV: Now, Germany has introduced quite a lot of money. 20-Bbillion euros of Germany's total stimulus program were aimed at direct investments. The lion's share went towards infrastructure projects and education. Another five Billion was used for Germany's car scrapping bonus scheme, which ran out last year. And the rest, a rather slim percentage, was going towards research and development. Looking back, how do you think all these stimulus programs worked? Was it enough? Jörg Rocholl: Certainly, Germany has escaped the crisis better than many of the neighbors, so this means overall the German economy looks quite good given where we stood one year ago. At the same time, it's very hard to predict and estimate what exactly the fraction of this contribution was that the economic stimulus program provided, but I certainly see the positive benefit of this. DW-TV: Because there obviously has been discussion whether it was enough money, whether it was too much money, and compared to other countries, Germany's stimulus package was rather modest, In China - now the world's leading exporter – it pumped 14 percent of its GDP into the economy. The US provided some seven percent of the country's GDP to get the eco...

Channel: sevenload Video Length: 0s Date Found: Thu, Aug 26 2010 11:49 PM Category: News Date Produced: Mon, Aug 23 2010 12:00 AM View Count: 2