Enlarge image
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz
Photo: FILIP SINGER / EPA
The federal government will have to incur significantly more debts next year than Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) had planned so far.
According to information from SPIEGEL from the Federal Ministry of Finance, the government draft for the 2022 budget provides for net borrowing of around 100 billion euros.
In March, when the basic budget values were presented for next year, Scholz had assumed that new debt would amount to 81.5 billion euros.
One reason for the additional credit requirement is, for example, the emergency climate program that has now been adopted and which has a budget of eight billion euros. The healthcare system, which is strained due to the corona pandemic, will receive an additional seven billion euros and long-term care insurance will also receive an additional billion. In the following years, the federal government wants to meet the debt brake requirements again, which are suspended for 2022 due to the recession. The new debt should then fall to around ten billion euros.
The federal cabinet will approve the government's draft budget and medium-term financial planning next Wednesday.
After the general election, a new government will traditionally present a new draft budget.
For this year, Scholz has earmarked a record new debt of 240 billion euros.
As heard from the Treasury Department, however, he will not have to take full advantage of this credit line.
rei
