Tag Archives: Rainer Buergin

German January tax revenue increases 3.4 percent

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This kind of fiscal drag is highly counterproductive.

German January Tax Revenue Increases 3.4 Percent, Ministry Says

by Rainer Buergin

Feb 20 (Bloomberg) — German tax revenue rose 3.4 percent in January to 39.1 billion euros ($49.6 billion), led by flows to Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck’s federal coffers, the Finance Ministry said in its monthly report.

Intake at federal level increased 8.5 percent to 15.9 billion euros while the country’s 16 states reaped 18.5 billion euros, 2.1 percent more than a year earlier, the report showed. Germany’s budget plans call for a tax revenue increase of 2.1 percent for the year as a whole, compared with 2008.

“The cooling world economy has by now fully impacted on Germany’s domestic economy,” the ministry said. “The worsening of the situation and the outlook for the manufacturing industry” suggest that “the recession will continue.”

Forward-looking economic indicators suggest the German economy will shrink in the first quarter after contracting 2.1 percent in the final three months of last year, a drop that was bigger than expected, the ministry said.


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From the same ratings agency looking to downgrade the US

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Germany Retains `Stable’ Rating Outlook at Moody’s Amid Crisis

By Rainer Buergin

Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) — Germany retained a “stable” outlook at Moody’s Investors Service on its Aaa government bond ratings even as the financial crisis puts strains on public coffers, the rating company said today in an e-mailed report.

Moody’s, in a regular credit analysis, kept the “Aaa – stable” rating for Germany’s government bonds, the country ceiling and the bank deposit ceiling, both in foreign and local currency.

“Germany’s public debt payment capacity is strong and Moody’s anticipates no problems with regard to affordability or adverse debt dynamics, even with the impact of the economic slowdown likely to be felt on both sides of the government balance sheet,” said Moody’s analyst Alexander Kockerbeck.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government faces revenue shortfalls this year and will have to expand net borrowing in 2009 as the worst economic recession in at least 12 years takes its toll on the budget. Lawmakers last week authorized higher net federal borrowing in 2009 compared with 2008, the first increase since Merkel came to office three years ago.


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