BERLIN, Jan 18 Reuters Germany is able to stick to its selfimposed 2024 debt brake in a 476.8 billion euros 517.8 billion proposal drawn up by the parliamentary budget committee on Thursday, according to the draft seen by Reuters and people familiar with the matter.

Under the proposal, which concludes months of tense negotiation over Germany39;s 2024 spending, Europe39;s top economy can issue 39 billion euros in new debt, which would be within the government39;s limit.

The committee agreed on the proposal in deliberations that ended on Thursday, three people familiar with the matter said. Germany39;s lower house is scheduled to approve the 2024 budget on Feb. 2.

The debt brake, enshrined in the German constitution, restricts the public deficit to 0.35 of gross domestic product.

The government in 2023 decided to suspend the cap on borrowing after a Constitutional Court ruling blocked the repurposing of unused pandemic emergency funds.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz39;s threeparty coalition announced an agreement on key points of the 2024 draft budget in December following weeks of talks, after the court ruling threw the government39;s finances into disarray. Some changes to the agreement have been made since then.

Green Party politician SvenChristian Kindler earlier said Germany need not suspend its brake on debt issuance in 2024 to finance rebuilding after major floods in western Germany in 2021.

Finance Minister Christian Lindner welcomed the draft that effectively rules…