German deficit reaches 3.3pc

FRANKFURT, Feb 24 (AFP): Germany's public deficit reached 3.3 per cent of output in 2010, the national statistics office said Thursday as it revised lower an initial estimation released in January. The Destatis office had come up with a provisional deficit figure of 3.5 per cent for the combined federal, state, municipal and social security budgets, the first time in five years Germany has exceeded a theoretical European Union limit of 3.0 per cent of gross domestic product. In 2009, the public deficit amounted to exactly 3.0 per cent of GDP, following a tiny surplus of 0.1 percent in 2008. Germany had approved a stimulus package worth about 80 billion euros ($110 billion) to help the biggest European economy recover from its worst post-war recession in 2009.