Off the wire
• Chinese, German foreign ministers hold phone talks  • Roundup: Gas storage explosion claims 11 lives in W. Afghanistan, fire devours bazaar in north  • Pique defends referees while Bartomeu rejects Neymar sale talk  • Men's 800 meters final results at athletics worlds  • Men's long jump final results at athletics worlds  • Exhibition on China-Russia anti-Fascist archives opens in Beijing  • Israel arrests four Palestinians suspected of planning attacks on Israelis in West Bank  • Feature: Innocent Afghan civilians increasingly becoming victims of terrorist attacks  • Vice premier urges to step up building China-Pakistan Economic Corridor  • Chinese vice premier stresses consultative service for manufacturing  
You are here: 　 Home

Germany achieves budget surplus of 21.1 bln euros in H1: Destatis

Xinhua, August 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

Germany achieved a budget surplus of 21.1 billion euros (about 24.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2015 thanks to a strong economy and fiscal conservatism, official data showed on Tuesday.

Governments at all levels in Germany earned more than they spent in the first six months of the current year, benefiting from "both a positive development of employment and economy and moderate spending policies," said German federal statistical office Destatis.

The German economy expanded by 0.3 percent in the first quarter and by 0.4 percent in the three months through June, providing a solid base for tax income.

In the first six months, German federal, state and local governments, as well as social security funds, earned 662 billion euros, while spending 640.9 billion euros.

The surplus amounted to 1.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), according to Destatis. Around half of it was achieved by the federal government which saw a surplus of 10.5 billion euros thanks to a high increase in tax income and an extra revenue of 4.4 billion euros from the sale of mobile phone frequencies. Endit