Data prompts Merkel to think stimulus

Berlin

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel's government is flirting with measures to stimulate growth, reviewing its options amid evidence the economy risks plunging into recession.

Among plans being discussed is lowering the mandatory pension contribution by 0.6 percentage point, which would funnel six billion euros (S$9.7 billion) into the economy, said Michael Fuchs, deputy parliamentary leader of Mrs Merkel's Christian Democratic Union in the lower house.