23/08/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 23 August the German Federal Office of Statistics showed a budget surplus for they whole of the German public sector (federal state, Länder, municipalities and social security funds) for the first half of 2007. this was mainly down to a combination of factors such as the good economic situation, austerity measures taken by Berlin and the three point rise in value added tax at the beginning of the year. The surplus will represent €1.2 billion 0.1%...