Brussels, 10/01/2005 (Agence Europe) - According to a German finance spokesperson, the public deficit for 2004 is expected to be under the record forecasts of EUR 43.5 bn. Recent statistics demonstrate that the federal government has benefited from additional money (essentially income from the fight against fiscal fraud) and has spent less than planned (Federal Employment Agency in particular). Given that common public accounts were also up on tax receipts, by way of taxes on certain professions, the 2004 deficit (the final figures will be sent out at the end of the week) is expected to be below the EUR 40 bn mark.
Initially, the German Finance Law expected a little less than EUR 29 bn in deficit for 2004 but this statistic was revised to EUR 43.5 bn in October (a higher ratio than the 3% GDP threshold in the Stability Pact for the third year in a row). Based on the Berlin commitments for 2005, the Commission recently concluded that this ratio would fall to 2.9% in 2005 and has suspended the excessive deficit procedures (EUROPE 15 December, p.12).