Municipal debt to banks or insurance companies amounted to €4,448 per capita at the end of 2024. This was 6.3 percent higher than the previous year, as the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden announced on Tuesday, based on a model calculation. In total, municipalities and municipal associations were indebted to the tune of almost €343.8 billion.
The model calculation includes not only the debts of core municipal budgets but also the debts of extra-budgetary funds and other public funds, institutions, and companies. Only debts to the non-public sector, such as credit institutions, are considered.
At the end of 2024, the state of Hesse had the highest municipal debt per capita at €6,291, thus overtaking Saarland. In Saarland, debt increased only slightly thanks to the so-called Saarland Pact, under which the state assumes the cash advances of core municipal budgets.
North Rhine-Westphalia recorded the highest increase in debt, with a rise of 9.9 percent. It was followed by Schleswig-Holstein (plus 8.9 percent) and Bavaria (plus 8.0 percent), although these two states, at €3,718 and €3,453 respectively, still have lower per capita debt than the national average.
Rhineland-Palatinate saw a significant decrease of 10.2 percent in the number of municipal schools. Since 2024, municipalities there have been able to have their liquidity loans covered by the state through a state program. Per capita debt in Rhineland-Palatinate stood at €4,253 at the end of 2024. Nationwide, the lowest debt levels were recorded in Brandenburg and Saxony, at €2,587 and €3,148 respectively.
AFP – Translated by Blackout News