Bavaria’s per capita debt has grown significantly during the Corona crisis in recent years. At the end of 2021 it was 2810 euros, as the Ministry of Finance announced on Thursday in Munich. Before the pandemic began at the end of 2019, the debt burden per inhabitant was 2056 euros.
According to the figures available so far, Bavaria remains the federal state with the lowest per capita debt, said Finance Minister Albert Füracker (CSU). Thanks to solid budget policy, the Free State has been able to keep the general budget in the black for more than ten years and has even been able to repay 5.7 billion euros in debts.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, however, rich Bavaria has also had to go into debt in order to cushion the financial consequences for people, companies and municipalities. “Our goal is to keep as much of the crisis away from people as possible – Bavaria helped in the pandemic like no other federal state,” said Füracker.
Bavaria took out around 7.2 billion euros in loans in 2020 and around 2.9 billion euros in 2021 to deal with the corona pandemic and its consequences. This year, the government’s draft budget for the special chapter on the corona pandemic also provides for a credit authorization of around 5.8 billion euros. The Free State thus incurred the most new debts in the pandemic.
“Unfortunately, Bavaria was hit like no other federal state. Instead of blind saving, the Free State has provided massive and targeted help to get citizens, companies and municipalities through the pandemic in the best possible way,” said Füracker. As examples, he named aid programs for art and culture, clubs and associations – also in the sports sector and for social institutions. Expenditures for health, care and social affairs alone amounted to more than 3.4 billion euros. In addition, significantly more than three billion euros of the pandemic-related debts were made exclusively in favor of the Bavarian municipalities.