German public debt up 0.1 pct to 1.9 trillion euros

Source: Xinhua | 2019-09-25

Germany's public debt amounted to 1.9 trillion euros (2.1 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of the first half of 2019, up 0.1 percent compared with the end of 2018, the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Tuesday.
Compared with the first half of 2018, the country's national debt declined by 0.4 percent or 7.9 billion euros, according to provisional figures released by Destatis.
The total public debt included all budgets of Germany's national government, its 16 federal states as well as municipalities and social security funds, Destatis said.
On Friday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated that her government would stick to a balanced national budget and not take on new debts when presenting new measures to reach Germany's carbon emission goals.
Referring to the aim of achieving a balanced federal budget, Merkel said in Berlin that "we remain committed to the black zero" policy of no fiscal deficits.
Germany's federal government has reduced its debts by 2 billion euros within one year and was indebted with 1.2 trillion euros at the end of the first half of 2019.
At the same time, the German municipalities reduced their debt by 2.4 billion euros to a total of 130.3 billion euros.
Only the federal states of Germany have increased their debts. Compared to the end of 2018, debts at federal state level increased by 1.2 percent, totaling 577.5 billion euros.
Destatis noted that "developments varied greatly" among Germany's federal states. Bremen saw the strongest increase, with its debt going up by more than 10 percent, while Bavaria managed to reduce its debt by almost eight percent.
In absolute numbers, Hamburg reduced its debt the most. According to Destatis, the northern German state decreased its public debt by more than 1.7 billion euros. (1 euro = 1.10 U.S. dollars)