BERLIN, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Germany's public debt continued to rise in the third quarter (Q3) of 2023, reaching a record 2,454.0 billion euros (2,699.4 billion U.S. dollars), the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Thursday.
Compared with the end of 2022, Germany took on 85.8 billion euros in new debt. Ongoing support programs to ease the burden on citizens and companies in the energy crisis in particular contributed to the increase.
Starting with the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been the fourth year in a row in which the German government has suspended the so-called debt brake, a constitutionally enshrined limit on new state debt.
In mid-November, the Federal Constitutional Court found that the government had wrongly reallocated 60 billion euros in unused COVID-19 aid loans to the country's Climate and Transformation Fund (CTF), leaving the government scrambling for a solution.
Next year, the debt brake is to be complied with again. Instead of incurring new debt, a budget gap of 17 billion euros is to be closed with massive savings. Green transformation projects are heavily affected as the CTF will be reduced by 12 billion euros in 2024 alone.
Although Germany's government will have significantly less money at its disposal, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that it will stick to the plan and "forge ahead with the climate-neutral transformation of our country."
As a result of the budget cuts, consumers are expected to face additional burdens due to higher costs for energy. The Federation of German Consumer Organizations criticized the new budget plan for creating an "imbalance at the expense of consumers."
The planned elimination of subsidies for renewable energies and agriculture, on the other hand, already led to protests in Berlin at the beginning of the week. On Thursday, farmers were blocking several highway ramps with tractors in eastern Germany. (1 euro = 1.10 U.S. dollar)
