The financial deficit (net borrowing) of general government amounted to 38.1 billion euros in the 1st half of 2024 according to provisional calculations. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that the general government deficit was 1.3 billion euros lower than in the 1st half of 2023. Measured as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) at current prices, the deficit ratio was 1.8% in the first six months of 2024.
The results are based on the definitions of the European System of Accounts (ESA) 2010. They provide the basis for monitoring the budget situation in the Member States of the European Union (EU) in accordance with the Stability and Growth Pact (Maastricht criteria) and do not correspond to the financial balance of the overall public budget as defined for finance statistics. Only limited conclusions can be drawn for the annual result from the results for the first six months.
At 24.6 billion euros, central government accounted for the largest share of general government deficit in the 1st half of 2024, as was the case in the same period a year earlier. However, the financial deficit of central government decreased substantially by 17.9 billion euros. By contrast, the financial deficits of state and local government increased considerably. In the 1st half of 2024, the financial deficit of state government amounted to 7.2 billion euros (1st half of 2023: 4.0 billion euros) and the deficit of local government was 6.4 billion euros (1st half of 2023: 2.5 billion euros). Social security funds recorded a financial surplus of 0.2 billion euros in the 1st half of 2024, which was much smaller than in the first six months of 2023 (9.6 billion euros).
