Photo: DPAThe German state notched up a record budget surplus between January and June, official figures showed Friday, as Europe's largest economy continued to grow strongly. All the levels of government - federal, regional and municipal - combined took in €18.3 billion more than they spent, data from federal statistics authority Destatis showed. With gross domestic product in the first half of the year at €1.6 trillions, the budget surplus stood at around 1.1 percent of GDP. In a separate release, the statisticians confirmed that German gross domestic product had grown 0.6 percent in the second quarter, a slight slowdown from the first three months' 0.7-percent expansion. So far, strong growth in the first half has not prompted Berlin to revise its full-year GDP forecast upwards from a cautious 1.5-percent prediction.

Source: The Local August 25, 2017 08:37 UTC