Germany is set to post a small public-sector budget surplus this year, earlier than planned, a magazine reported on Saturday. Last month, Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck predicted a surplus for next year but said Europe's biggest economy would have a public-sector budget deficit of about 0.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year.
The authoritative Der Spiegel magazine cited anonymous finance ministry officials as saying they expected a surplus of about 0.1 percent of GDP this year, thanks to solid economic growth and tax revenues. They also predicted a surplus of 0.2 percent of GDP for 2008 and 0.5 percent from 2009, rising to 1.5 percent by 2011.
Germany's public-sector deficit narrowed to 1.6 percent of GDP last year, dipping below the European Union's 3 percent limit for the first time since 2001. The EU had for years scolded Germany for its big deficits.
Steinbrueck neither confirmed nor denied the numbers, when asked about the report at the Social Democrat party congress in Hamburg. He said he would not comment on internal numbers. "It might be that (the budget) will be 0.2 percent in positive territory (in 2008) but I don't know," he said.
The public-sector budget is made up of federal, state and local authority finances and the social security system. Spiegel also said Germany would borrow about 2 billion euros ($2.87 billion) less than the 14.4 billion euros planned for this year.
"I will know about that at the end of the year. We have a tax estimate in November, then I will know more," Steinbrueck said. The government has benefited from a strong economy which has boosted tax revenues this year. It has also held down spending to reduce the deficit and raised sales tax by three percentage points in January.