“So we’re doing what’s necessary, but not exhausting what’s possible.”
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin In the Corona year 2021, the federal government incurred significantly less debt than planned. The federal government will not fully exhaust the possible debt framework, but will fall below this by 24.8 billion euros, said Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP). The new debt in 2021 will thus amount to 215.4 billion euros instead of the originally planned 240 billion euros.
If you add the unused corona debts, which flow into a climate reserve, the bottom line was new debt of 155.4 billion euros – even 84.8 billion euros less than originally planned.
Global debt levels have skyrocketed since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. In Germany, too, billions were invested in economic aid to combat the crisis, while at the same time tax revenues collapsed.
In the meantime, however, the situation has improved again. The German economy grew by 2.7 percent in 2021. Tax revenue is also increasing again.
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Due to the better situation, far fewer companies took advantage of corona state aid than was provided. This is the main reason for the lower level of new borrowing.
However, the traffic light coalition uses a large part of the unused corona debt from 2021 to increase a climate reserve in the federal budget by 60 billion euros. However, the measure is controversial. The Union sees this as a violation of the debt brake enshrined in the Basic Law and wants to go to the Constitutional Court against the build-up of the reserve.
Lindner: The state must also be able to act in the next crisis
From the point of view of the Union, according to the debt brake, special corona debts may only be spent to combat the pandemic and not to finance climate policy. The CDU and CSU therefore asked Lindner in the Bundestag to withdraw the supplementary budget for 2021, in which the build-up of the climate reserve is stipulated.
Lindner, on the other hand, justified the step by wanting to combat the consequences of the corona pandemic. “We have to finance the recovery of the economy, we have to overcome the pandemic, we have to strengthen investments,” he said. The state must create leeway again in order to be able to act in the next crisis.
Lindner also emphasized that the debt scope was not fully exploited. “So we’re doing what’s necessary, but not exhausting what’s possible.”
Financial politicians from the SPD and the Greens had called for all unused corona debt to be put into the climate reserve instead of reducing new debt. However, the FDP had resisted this.
The Minister of Finance confirmed that he intends to comply with the debt brake suspended during the pandemic again from 2023. “In the years that follow, my goal is to reduce the German debt ratio.” From the point of view of the traffic light coalition, the climate reserve helps to make the transition to compliance with the debt brake as smooth as possible.
However, there is not much room for maneuver for the traffic light coalition even after the reserve has been formed. At least at the start of the budget negotiations, State Secretary Werner Gatzer (SPD) gave this message to his departmental colleagues, according to Handelsblatt information.
Gatzer: Ampel has to set priorities
It is true that the financial situation would have improved, also thanks to higher tax revenues. However, Gatzer warned against exhausting the manageable scope right at the beginning of the election period. Instead, he recommended that his colleagues in the department set clear priorities for the traffic light projects. Additional expenditure would have to be financed by the departments themselves.
Gatzer received support from, among others, the State Secretary from the Federal Ministry of Economics, Anja Hajduk (Greens). She also urged the new traffic light coalition to set clear priorities. No priorities were defined in the coalition agreement.
More: State lawyers consider climate reserves to be unconstitutional.