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German economists critical of Donald Trump's taxation, trade plans

Xinhua, November 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

German economists are critical of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's taxation and trade plans, a survey conducted by German research institute Ifo showed on Monday.

"Curbing trade and contracting new debts would certainly be a bitter pill to swallow," said Niklas Potrafke, director of the Ifo Center for Public Finance and Political Economy.

Altogether 62 percent of surveyed participants see U.S. public debt, which already exceeds 100 percent of economic output, as a moderate problem, while 17 percent as a serious problem. Only 20 percent of the surveyed German economists deemed it no major problem.

In addition, a third of German economists polled in the survey expect Trump's trade policy to be far more protectionist, while 61 percent expect only a slight shift towards protectionism.

The vast majority of German economists in the survey believes that this would negatively impact the U.S., and do even greater damage to Germany's economy. Endit