German gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 0.4 per cent in the period from April to June, up from 0.3 per cent in the first quarter, the federal statistics office Destatis said, confirming a flash estimate released earlier this month.
At the same time, Destatis calculated that Germany's finances were firmly in the black, with the federal, regional, municipal and welfare budgets running up a combined surplus of 21.1 billion euros (USD 24.4 billion) in the period from January to June.
Germany's public finances "continued to profit from the favourable employment situation and positive growth, as well as moderate spending," Destatis said.
But the statisticians warned against extrapolating the first-half figures on to the year as a whole, as the budget surpluses tended to be lower in the second half of the year.
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Under EU rules, member states are not allowed to run up budget deficits of more than 3.0 per cent of overall output, but Germany's finances were in surplus last year.
Turning to the second-quarter GDP data, Destatis said that "positive impulses came primarily from foreign trade".
That was "the biggest growth engine in the second quarter," it said.
On the side of domestic demand, the signals were more mixed.
While private households marginally increased spending by 0.2 per cent and public sector spending rose by 0.3 per cent, investment in plant and equipment declined by 0.4 per cent.
"All in all, domestic demand decreased slightly in the second quarter, knocking 0.3 percentage point off the overall growth rate," Destatis said.