German tax revenues down significantly in February - finance ministry

BERLIN, March 21 (Reuters) - The tax revenues of Germany's federal and regional state governments decreased by 4.1% in February compared with the same month last year, due mainly to tax relief in response to the energy crisis and inflation, the finance ministry said on Tuesday.

The revenues decreased to 60.55 billion euros ($64.86 billion) in February, according to the ministry's monthly report. For the first two months of 2023, revenue was down 1.8% compared with the same period last year, to 118.6 billion euros.

High inflation rates are set to ease over the course of the year as price pressures weaken, the ministry said.

For 2023, experts have forecast tax revenues will increase to 857.2 billion euros, up 5.2% from the previous year. ($1 = 0.9335 euros) (Reporting by Christian Kraemer and Miranda Murray; editing by Matthias Williams)