Hope for fresh billions
KFW: Financial situation of the municipalities has further deteriorated
Streets, schools, swimming pools – many cities and municipalities lack the money for investments. Pessimism is available in the combing in the combing. However, there is some hope.
Empty coffers and huge challenges: After a record deficit in 2024, many municipalities in Germany also see black for the future. 84 percent of the combing facilities expect a “rather disadvantageous” or “very disadvantageous” budget situation for the current year. The proportion of pessimists in the current “KfW communal panel” has increased slightly again compared to the previous year.
The proportion of cities and municipalities, which expected a “very disadvantageous” development in the period of five years, increased by 14 percentage points to 44 percent in the previous year. The conclusion of the state sponsoring bank KfW: The financial prospects of the municipalities had “clouded again”.
Many investments necessary
“In view of the tense cash register, the question arises how the municipalities will on the one hand eliminate investment residues in roads and schools and at the same time finance new challenges such as the expansion of energy distribution networks,” says the analysis, which is based on an annual survey of combing on behalf of the KfW.
Fresh special billions could help something
“The special fund of infrastructure decided by the federal government can help to reduce the accommodated investment deficit,” says KfW chief economist Dirk Schumacher. However, according to the sponsoring bank, the fresh billions do not solve the structural problems of many municipalities in financing: for example, the construction of construction prices and tax revenue.
Last year, the municipal financing deficit in Germany grew to the highest level of paying since reunification: A deficit of 24.8 billion euros in the core and extraction of the municipalities and municipal associations – without city -states.
dpa
Source: Stern
