This year’s Annual Economic Report was adopted by the federal cabinet on 30 January 2019. The German economy is experiencing growth for the tenth year in a row. The German government’s economic and fiscal policies are still guided by the tenets of the social market economy. This article summarises the key points of the 2019 Annual Economic Report.

Germany’s publicly owned consulting agency for the public sector celebrated its 10th anniversary on 11 November 2018. PD is the German public sector’s only in-house consulting agency that operates on a nationwide basis and at all levels of government. PD advises the public sector on projects aimed at (a) innovative and sustainable infrastructure and (b) the modernisation of administrative processes.

On 15 January 2019, the Federal Ministry of Finance presented the provisional closure of the 2018 federal budget. It showed that budgets have been well-managed while investments reached record levels. The provisional data shows that the Federation achieved a structural surplus of roughly 0.15% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018, thus meeting the requirements of Germany’s constitutional debt brake.