Businessweek.com: Germany's budget deficit slides in 2006

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Germany's budget deficit slides in 2006

Germany's budget deficit fell to 1.7 percent of gross domestic product last year, undercutting government forecasts and bringing the country in line with European Union rules for the first time since 2001, government figures showed Thursday. The Federal Statistics Office said the deficit came in at about euro39.5 billion (US$51.9 billion).

That translated as 1.7 percent of GDP -- short of the 1.9 percent estimate previously given by the Finance Ministry. The figure compared with a deficit of 3.2 percent in 2005. It was the first time that Germany had complied with EU rules limiting euro-zone members' deficits to 3 percent of GDP since 2001, when the country's deficit was 2.8 percent.