2013 German budget sees lower-than-expected

A budget passed early Friday in a German parliamentary committee sees a lower-than-expected deficit for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government for the election year of 2013. A deficit of 17.1 billion euros (21.8 billion dollars) was projected, 1.7 billion euros lower than the draft budget presented by Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. The opposition accused Merkel’s coalition of creative accounting to reduce the deficit before next year’s election, including putting 800 million euros of 2012 privatization revenues into the 2013 budget, which also sank projected government borrowing, Germany’s dpa reported. The new budget, passed in a 13-hour meeting of the Bundestag’s Budget Committee, foresees 302 billion euros in spending next year, down slightly from the 302.2 billion euros that Schaeuble had projected in the summer.