REUTERS
Germany ran up a record surplus in its finances last year, the National Statistics Office (Destatis) reported Tuesday, according to Deutsche Welle.
It said the country notched up an overall surplus of EUR 19.4 billion ($21 billion) in 2015, DW wrote.
The figure marks the highest level in absolute terms since German unification in 1990. Measured against gross domestic product (GDP), the surplus amounted to 0.6% of overall output.
This compared with EUR 8.9 billion in positive territory, or 0.3%, back in 2014, Destatis calculated.
Thus 2015 was the second year in a row that Germany's public finances had been firmly in the black, while many fellow eurozone nations were unable to meet EU deficit rules, logging fresh borrowing above the allowed 3-percent-of-GDP threshold.
Destatis also confirmed a preliminary estimate that the German economy expanded by 0.3% in the final quarter of last year. Across 2015, the economy grew by 1.7%.
"Positive impulses came primarily from domestic demand," Destatis said in a statement.
In contrast, foreign trade had a dampening effect on fourth-quarter growth, with exports falling by 1.7% and imports slipping by 0.6%.