In the largest savings effort in the history of postwar Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel's government announced a plan to cut more than 80 billion euros from its budget over the next four years. To meet the goal of lowering its deficit to less than 0.35% of GDP starting in 2016, Germany will have to reduce spending on unemployment benefits, eliminate 10,000 civil service jobs and trim its armed forces by as many as 100,000 troops.
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