BERLIN, June 8: German Finance Minister said on Saturday new borrowing would fall to 15.5 billion euros ($14.66bn) in the draft budget for 2003 he is due to present to cabinet on June 19 and reiterated it should fall to zero by 2006.

“On June 19 when I present cabinet with the 2003 budget you will see that we will stick to our course,” Eichel told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in an interview. made available ahead of publication in the newspaper on Sunday.

“New borrowing will then sink to 15.5 billion euros,” he said. “In 2006, the federal government should once again come out without any new borrowing.”

With elections looming in September and his Social Democrats behind in polls, Eichel admitted that the economic downturn had made sticking to his targets of fiscal probity more difficult, but he did not go into details of where cuts would be needed.

“Tax revenues will not climb to the extent expected. But in expenditure we’re doing better than we predicted in 1999 in our long-term planning,” he said. Last month, Eichel cut tax revenue estimates for 2002 and following years.—Reuters