"We've had a bit of luck, and of course we've economized well," German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said in Berlin on Monday, just a year after he claimed the "fat" years were over for Germany.
It is the third time in the last five years that Europe's largest economy closed the year with a budget surplus. The 2019 surplus overtook a 2015 budget surplus of €12.1 billion.
Added to that figure is an additional €5.5 billion from a fund earmarked for refugees that went unspent, making a total surplus of €19 billion.
In contrast the US budget deficit topped $1 trillion in 2019.
Read more at: Germany posts record-breaking budget surplus | News | DW | 13.01.2020
