Public financial assets rose to a new high of EUR 1.1 trillion last year. As reported by the Federal Statistical Office on Tuesday, the total budget of the federal government, states, municipalities, municipal associations and social security increased by 6.1 percent compared to the previous year. Public financial assets include cash, deposits and securities. It is separated from the non-public area, which includes banks and private companies.
The financial assets of the federal government increased by 8.2 percent to 428.7 billion euros in 2021 compared to the previous year. “The reason for this development was the build-up of liquid funds to ensure the federal government’s ability to act in the implementation of aid packages and programs to deal with the economic consequences of the corona pandemic,” it said. As in the previous year, the build-up was largely the result of increased borrowing.
In 2020, financial assets exceeded one trillion euros for the first time. The reason for this was, in particular, funds from federal borrowings that were not outflowed during the Corona crisis
The financial assets of the federal states increased by 8.3 percent to 294.3 billion euros compared to 2020. The countries recorded very different developments. The highest percentage increase was in Lower Saxony with an increase of 38 percent, which according to the information is due in particular to the strong price gain of the Volkswagen share. On the other hand, the highest decline was in Bremen (minus 31 percent), which is mainly due to a reduction in the cash collateral to be deposited for derivative transactions.
Municipalities and municipal associations recorded an increase in financial assets of 3.9 percent to 223.5 billion euros. The municipalities in Saarland showed the largest percentage increase at 11.2 percent.
