Off the wire
• H7N9 leaves one dead in east China  • Singapore to test driveless car on road  • Dozens of IS militants killed in airstrike in northern Iraqi town  • 2nd LD Writethru:EU presents law for 315-bln-euro investment plan  • Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, Jan. 13  • Obama to announce new cybersecurity legislative proposal  • Russia to rid dependence on Ukrainian military suppliers  • China to announce new support for new energy cars  • Mozambique's opposition urges in-depth probe into intoxicated case  • Botswana to play Burkina Faso, Egypt in soccer friendlies  
You are here: 　 Home

Germany balances budget a year earlier than planned

Xinhua, January 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

The German federal government reached a budget balance and added no new debt in 2014, a year earlier than it initially planned, announced the Finance Ministry on Tuesday, citing high tax revenues and low interest payments.

The German government initially planned to borrow 6.5 billion euros (about 7.6 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014 to fund its expenditure, but it turned out to be unnecessary at all.

The Finance Ministry said partly thanks to "significantly lower interest payments", the federal government spent 295.5 billion euros last year, 1 billion euros blow its projection and the lowest since 2009.

At the same time, the government received 2.6 billion euros more than initial target in taxes mainly due to "positive trend in corporation tax revenue". In total, federal tax revenue stood at 270.8 billion euros.

This, together with an additional income of 24.7 billion euros including administrative revenues, helped the German government pencil its first "black zero" in its accounting books since 1969.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's government set a target of reaching a budget balance in 2015 and wished to set an example of strict financial principle for its eurozone partners.

The target, however, was criticized by economists as just "political fetish" and without economic senses as Europe's biggest economy was urged by other European Union member states and organizations including the International Monetary Fund to exploit its financial space to boost investment in Germany and imports from its neighbors.

Despite a robust domestic demands fueled by a record high employment, German private investment in 2014 was dampened by concerns about geopolitical tensions and weak demands abroad.

In November last year, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble announced a plan to raise an additional 10 billion euros in public investment from 2016 to 2018 in areas including infrastructure and energy efficiency.

The spending, however, would not be funded through new borrowings, he said. (1 euro = 1.18 U.S. dollars) Endit