FRANKFURT: Germany's public deficit reached 3.3 percent 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 percent 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 percent of gross domestic product.
In 2009, the public deficit amounted to exactly 3.0 percent 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.
That allowed Germany to post growth of 3.6 percent last year, its best result since the country was reunified in late 1990.
With government finances boosted by higher tax revenues and lower social charges, the central bank has forecast that Germany's public deficit could fall to around 2.0 percent of GDP this year.
The government has given a more conservative estimate of 2.5 percent.
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