German public debt declines slightly in 2013

German public debt declined slightly in 2013, continuing its path towards the target of a debt-to-GDP ratio of 60 percent in 2017, official data showed on Thursday. At the end of 2013, debt held by German federal, state, municipal governments was 2043.7 billion euros (about 2813.8 billion U.S. dollars), 1.4 percent or 28 billion euros less than a year earlier, said German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The decline was mainly due to asset liquidation of two state-funded "bad banks", FMS Wetmanagement and Erste Abwicklungsanstalt (EAA), the Wiesbaden-based office said in a statement. Federal debt decreased to 1281.4 billion euros by the end of 2013. Debt held by state governments were 628.7 billion euros, while those in municipalities remained unchanged at 133.6 billion euros, according to Destatis. Currently, the debt-to-GDP ratio of Germany stands at around 78 percent, above the upper limit required by the Maastricht Treaty. According to the treaty, EU member states have to limit their debt to 60 percent of GDP