The national debt can be traced back to measures to cope with the corona pandemic.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The high costs in the fight against the corona pandemic and its economic consequences are causing the German state’s debts to rise sharply. At the end of September, federal, state, municipal and social security, including all extra budgets, stood together with a good 2.284 trillion euros in the chalk.
That is 5.1 percent or 111.3 billion euros more than at the end of 2020, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Wednesday. This can be traced back to “measures to cope with the corona pandemic, especially at the federal level, but also in some countries”.
With the exception of social security, liabilities increased at all levels of government. The federal government recorded the largest share with an increase of 7.2 percent or 101.4 billion euros to around 1.505 trillion euros. At the end of the third quarter, the federal states were in debt with 645.2 billion euros, which corresponds to an increase of 1.4 percent or 9.2 billion euros in 2020.
The highest percentage increases compared to the end of 2020 were seen in Bavaria (+12.4 percent), Saxony (+11.0) and North Rhine-Westphalia (+6.0). “The increase in Bavaria resulted in particular from a higher expenditure requirement for measures to cope with the corona pandemic,” it said.
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In Saxony, the increase resulted in part from recordings for the “Corona Management Fund”. The increase in North Rhine-Westphalia is due to an increase in the state’s securities debt for the “special fund to finance all direct and indirect consequences of coping with the corona crisis” and the Erste Abwicklungsanstalt (EAA), the bad bank of the former WestLB.
Bremen recorded the strongest percentage decline in debt with a decline of 12.5 percent. “This is mainly due to the lower debt borrowing compared to the end of 2020 for the provision of cash collateral for derivative transactions,” it said. In Hesse, debt fell by 2.7 percent compared to the end of 2020 and in Saarland by 2.1 percent.
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