Acrimonious negotiations within Germany's coalition government over the 2025 budget are expected to drag on past an initial July 3 deadline to put forward a draft.
There remain deep disagreements over how to address major budget gaps, with several ministers rejecting deep cuts put forward by Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the pro-business liberal Free Democrats (FDP).
The shortfalls run into the tens of billions of dollars. Lindner has so far firmly rejected any effort to waive strict rules against government borrowing an deficit spending, despite appeals from some members of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens.
Both the SPD and Greens are fighting to protect budget priorities, including spending on social welfare programmes, efforts to address climate change and investments in infrastructure.
Delays in striking a deal between leaders of the three parties in Scholz's coalition mean the Finance Ministry does not believe a complete budget can be drawn up based on any political deal by the July 3, dpa has learned.
Instead, the Cabinet is now aiming to approve a proposed budget by July 17, which would still allow the government to meet its deadline to submit a budget to parliament.
Dpa has learned that experts in the Finance Ministry need around two weeks to translate a political agreement into a draft that is ready for a decision.
Politicians from the coalition parties sought in recent days to downplay speculation that the government could break up over budget issues.