1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

Balanced budget in sight

March 12, 2014

The German cabinet has thrown its weight behind Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble's budget plans for this year and beyond. Berlin said it aimed to do without any fresh borrowing as of next year.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble presents 2014 draft budget
Image: Reuters

The grand coalition government in Berlin said it needed 6.6 billion euros ($9.14 billion) in fresh borrowing this year, down from loans amounting to 22.1 billion euros a year earlier.

The federal budget plan for 2014 as approved by the cabinet Wednesday foresees total spending to the tune of 298.5 billion euros on expected tax revenues of 268.9 billion euros.

Predicted expenditures in the course of this year include a final batch of 4.3 billion euros for the eurozone's permanent rescue fund also known as European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

Three and a half billion euros less are to be allocated for propping up the statutory health fund as welfare coffers are well-filled thanks to robust employment across the nation.

Crimea threat?

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (pictured) insisted Germany would do without any fresh borrowing in 2015 and the following years, an achievement seen last in the country in 1969.

German tax revenue to increase

01:22

This browser does not support the video element.

The minister said the ambitious budgetary objectives were unlikely to be affected by the West's current standoff with Russian over Ukraine and the Crimea conflict in particular.

"We take the financial and economic risks very seriously, but we believe the effects are and will be manageable," Schäuble told reporters in Berlin, adding that the country's finances were robust enough to emerge from the crisis more or less unharmed.

hg/mz (dpa, Reuters)

Skip next section DW's Top Story

DW's Top Story

Skip next section More stories from DW