Germany’s new finance minister ruled out a shift in fiscal policy that would help Europe’s largest economy reduce its yawning trade surplus with the rest of the world, closing a possible avenue to resolve the unfolding trade conflict with the U.S.
Speaking on his flight back from a meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers in Argentina, Olaf Scholz told The Wall Street Journal that even though public coffers were full, the government wouldn’t consider large income and corporate tax cuts that could spur domestic...