Plus of a good three percent
The mountain of federal and state debt continues to grow
March 27, 2024, 11:02 a.m
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Although Germany complied with the debt brake last year, national debt still increased. As new figures from the Federal Statistical Office show, public debt grew by a good three percent.
German national debt rose last year. The total budget of the federal government, states, municipalities and municipal associations as well as social insurance, including all extra budgets, was in debt at 2.45 trillion euros at the end of 2023. This was announced by the Federal Statistical Office.
This means that public debt has climbed by 3.3 percent in the past twelve months. In absolute figures it was 77.4 billion euros. After all: there was a decline of 0.3 percent in the third quarter of 2023. Creditors were credit institutions and private companies at home and abroad.
The Federal debt rose by 4.7 percent or 76 billion euros by the end of 2023. The main reason is the increase in debt of the Energy Economic Stabilization Fund by 41.5 billion euros or a good 137 percent to 71.7 billion euros. “This special fund was established to finance measures to cushion the energy crisis in connection with the Russian attack on Ukraine in November 2022 and was dissolved at the end of 2023,” the statistics office explained.
The debt of the Economic Stabilization Fund special fund Corona, however, fell by almost 30 percent to 36.9 billion euros. The Bundeswehr special fund, which was set up in mid-2022, had a debt of 5.8 billion euros; at the end of 2022 it had not yet taken on any debt.
The Countries were in debt at the end of 2023 with 595.4 billion euros, which was 1.9 percent less than at the end of 2022. The largest percentage decreases in debt were for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (-13.1 percent), Bavaria (-8.7 percent) and Lower Saxony (-6.2 percent). Relatively speaking, debts rose the most in Brandenburg (+6.0 percent), Saxony (+4.1 percent) and Hesse (+2.7 percent).
Both Municipalities and community associations Debt rose by a good nine percent to 153.6 billion euros. At the social insurance there was an increase of 3.2 percent to 22.3 million euros.
The Debt ratio However, it fell to a good 64 percent of gross domestic product in 2023. In 2020, this rate rose sharply as a result of the corona pandemic. It has been falling on average since 2021. To be strived for according to the Maastricht agreements 60 percent.