Germany's Scholz urges agreement on global minimum tax now

RIYADH (Reuters) - World financial leaders should agree on a global minimum tax for companies now and politicians should not postpone an agreement for electoral reasons, Germany's Finance Minister said on Saturday at an international tax conference in the Saudi capital.

"We're now in the year where we have to take decisions. There is enough work that had been done in the past, we have proposals from the OECD in January and we will have a meeting in Berlin of the OECD on the question in July. So there is enough preparation for coming to the end," the minister, Olaf Scholz, added.

"So I think minimum taxation (of companies) should be done now ... and nearly every country understands why there is a need for this," Scholz said.

(Reporting by Michael Nienaber, Editing by William Maclean)