Mixed signals
August 25, 2009
Germany ran up a 17.3-billion-euro (24.7-billion-dollar) budget deficit during the first half of 2009, according to figures released by the Federal Statistics Office on Tuesday.
Higher government spending and falling tax revenue left Germany deep in the red after posting a seven-billion-euro surplus during the same period last year.
However, the deficit translates into merely 1.5 percent of Germany's gross domestic product which means Europe's largest economy is still comfortably within the 3 percent limit set by EU rules.
The Wiesbaden-based statistics office on Tuesday also confirmed data released earlier this month, which showed that Germany's economy grew by a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent in the second quarter, hinting at economic recovery.
"The economic development in the second quarter of 2009 was supported by private and government expenditure ... positive impulses also came from construction," the statistics office said in a statement.
This marks the first time that Germany's economy has grown since the first quarter of 2008, technically pulling the country out of recession.
Germany's economic pickup comes in the wake of cuts in global interest rates and a 85-billion-euro fiscal stimulus package.
nk/dpa/AP
Editor: Chuck Penfold