22/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - According to the Bundesbank's monthly report adopted on Tuesday, the German budget deficit will again exceed the 3% GDP reference value for 2003. The bank then criticised the weak measures adopted since 1997 for rectifying the public finance slippage of the country. The German central bank writes that, "From today's point of view it seems likely that the 3 per cent limit will be exceeded". It also explained that the slowdown in growth risked amputating the tax receipts at the same time that the support measures for jobs increased expenditure. A short while before publication of the Bundesbank monthly report, a senior official at the Ministry of Finance, Barbara Hendricks, had acknowledged that the government would find it difficult to contain the budget deficit below the 3% GDP threshold.