Press release No. 527 of 22 December 2020
WIESBADEN – Public debt reached a new all-time high in the third quarter of 2020. The debt owed by the overall public budget (Federation, Länder, municipalities and associations of municipalities as well as social security funds including all extra budgets) to the non-public sector (credit institutions and the remaining domestic and non-domestic sector, for instance private businesses in the domestic territory and abroad) amounted to 2,195.1 billion euros at the end of the quarter. At the end of the second quarter of 2020, the highest level of public debt ever recorded in debt statistics had already been reached (2,109.2 billion euros). A similar level of debt was recorded at the end of 2012 (2,068.3 billion euros). From that time onwards, public debt declined every year. Based on provisional results, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that public debt rose by 15.6%, or 296.4 billion euros, at the end of the third quarter of 2020 compared with the end of 2019. The increase was mainly due to the borrowing of funds for financing measures to overcome the coronavirus crisis. Compared with the second quarter of 2020, public debt increased by 4.1% (+85.9 billion euros).
Basic data and long time series are available in table debts owed to the non-public sector (71321-0005) GENESIS-Online database.
