Germany reaches budget surplus
February 25, 2014
Germany's national budget had reached a financing surplus of 300 million euros ($412 million) last year on the back of overall state revenues totaling 1.2334 trillion euros, the country's statistics office Destatis announced on Tuesday.
Compared with a gross domestic product (GDP) of 2.737 trillion euros in 2013, the quota was more or less zero percent, meaning Germany had stayed well within the European Union's deficit limit of 3 percent of GDP, Destatis said.
“It is the second year in a row that a small financing surplus has been achieved,” the German statisticians added in a statement.
Germany's balanced budget came as the country's economy showed meager but steady growth of 0.4 percent over the year. At the end of 2013, the recovery in Europe's largest economy gathered momentum growing from 0.3 percent in the third quarter to 0.4 percent in the final quarter of 2013, according to data confirmed by Destatis on Tuesday.
Quarterly Growth was driven primarily by foreign trade, with exports rising by 2.6 percent, while imports were up just 0.6 percent, the statisticians calculated. The German government revised upwards its growth forecast for 2014 recently, predicting that GDP would reach 1.8 percent in 2014.
uhe/pfd (AFP, dpa, Reuters)