FRANKFURT: Germany, Europe's biggest economy, clocked up a small surplus in its public finances in 2013, the federal statistics office Destatis said on Tuesday.
"According to Destatis's latest calculations, the federal state's financing surplus amounted to 0.3 billion euros ($0.4 billion) in 2013. It is the second year in a row that a small financing surplus has been achieved," the office said in a statement.
EU countries are obliged, under membership rules, to limit their public deficits to no more than 3.0 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and to achieve balanced budgets or even surpluses in the longer term.
Germany, which has fared the financial and economic crisis much better than most of its EU neighbours, already managed to run up a small surplus equivalent to 0.1 percent of GDP in 2012.
Measured against total output of 2.738 trillion euros in 2013, last year's ratio was more or less zero, Destatis said.
The financing surplus is the difference between the state's revenues and spending, which amounted to 1.2334 trillion euros and 1.2331 trillion euros respectively in 2013, the statement added.
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