Germany's Scholz: ‘Stick together’ to weather economic hardship

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called on Germans to "stick together" amid the rising cost of living in the country, which is becoming a pandemic across Europe.

According to Press TV, in a video podcast, the German leader admitted that rising prices have become a major cause of concern and unbridled inflation is troubling many citizens.

Recent government statistics showed inflation is running close to 8 percent in June compared to a year earlier.

Scholz said, however, in order to weather the country's economic problems, the population needed to stick together.

"We must link arms and stick together to come through this very difficult time safely, he insisted in his weekly message to the nation.

In this regard, Stephanie Lynch, a barista at Blaue Bohne, a coffee roaster in Berlin's popular Friedrichshain neighborhood, complained that the price of "everything" had literally increased.

"Literally everything we use here, the price has gone up: the paper cups, the cardboard, the bags we use to put the coffee into," she said.

Lynch noted that before COVID price hikes, prices had been steady for years, however, as a result of a worrying wave of economic data resulting from the conflict in Ukraine, another increase may be coming soon.

Recent media reports show that Germans are concerned about the decline of their standards of living, worrying that those people in society who have the least means and income would likely suffer the most from failed government economic policies.

To fill in the economic gap, German Labor Minister Hubertus Heil suggested extending an annual payment for single people earning less than $4,170 gross per month and for married people earning less than €8,340 together.

The German Institute for Economic Research (DIW),however, dismissed Heil's plan. 

DIW's president Marcel Fratzscher pointed out to DPA news agency that one-off payments were not the cure to the sufferings and would only provide temporary relief.

"Only higher wages and social benefits can sustainably compensate for the damage to people with medium and low incomes," he explained.

ME