Germany must move quicker with potentially painful reforms, experts warned Thursday, in the latest sign of unease at Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s efforts to turn the struggling economy around.

Merz has vowed to boost Europe’s biggest economy with a debt-fuelled public spending bonanza, focusing on defence and infrastructure.

But Geraldine Dany-Knedlik of the German Institute for Economic Research said such plans by themselves would provide only a short-term boost.

“A renewal of the German economy remains elusive and prospects for growth are continuing to deteriorate,” said Dany-Knedlik, as she presented updated growth projections conducted jointly by several institutes.

“Structural problems are merely being masked,” she said, warning that high costs, skills shortages and decreasing comp

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