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Finance Minister Olaf Scholz
Photo: BERND VON JUTRCZENKA / REUTERS
In the past year, the federal government incurred significantly less debt than would have been possible to deal with the corona crisis.
According to the preliminary budget, loans totaling 130.5 billion euros were taken out.
That is almost 90 billion less than assumed.
The Bundestag had originally approved debts of 217.8 billion euros and twice overruled the debt brake due to the special situation.
The number is both good news and bad news.
On the one hand, it signals that Germany's mountain of debt is growing less rapidly than feared.
On the other hand, it also points out that the funds provided against the corona recession are not flowing properly:
Of more than 24 billion euros in
corporate
aid, only 4.5 billion euros flowed out.
The federal government was also unable to
spend
all of its
funds on investments
.
Of around 71 billion euros, 21 billion euros remained.
The
federal government spent nine billion euros less on
the
labor market
than was available.
Overall, the
expenditure was around 65 billion euros lower than planned
.
The faltering outflow of funds is only one of two reasons why the budget gap is smaller than expected.
Despite the deep Corona recession, the federal government also collected more taxes than planned.
The plus is 22 billion euros.
The reason for this is that the economy is recovering better than expected
High expenditures are also planned for the current year.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) has already adjusted the loan volume for 2021 and increased it to around 180 billion.
He had announced that around 300 billion euros would be needed for both crisis years together.
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ssu / rei / dpa
