Germany will begin consolidating its finances from 2011 and get its public deficit under the European Union limit by 2013, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Tuesday. Germany expects its deficit to hit 3.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, and roughly 6 percent in 2010, That is double the EU limit of 3 percent, but relatively moderate compared with some other euro zone states.
Germany agreed with an EU decision in October that member countries should begin budget consolidation measures by 2011 if a self-sustaining recovery had begun, Schaeuble said. "I share the judgement that there is a self-sustaining recovery and so Germany will begin consolidation by 2011. The structural deficit will be reduced progressively," he told reporters at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels.
"We will accept the conditions of the deficit procedure and bring our total public deficit under the 3 percent level by 2013," he said. Schaeuble's commitment to bringing Germany's deficit under the EU limit by 2013 contrasted with France, which said it would need another year to meet the target. "The prime minister has indicated that we will be at 3 percent in 2014 and not in 2013," Budget Minister Eric Woerth told Europe 1 radio on Tuesday.
"It's very difficult today to know that," he said, adding that he would not risk stifling nascent signs of growth by moving too quickly to rein in the deficit. "There are many indicators today that show France is getting out of the crisis. We shouldn't play with that and we shouldn't slow that down," he said.