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Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) is planning at least 160 billion euros in new debt for the coming year, which is over 60 billion euros more than previously known.

So far, Scholz had assumed a net borrowing of 96 billion euros.

The “Bild” newspaper and the Reuters news agency report on the planned increase in debt.

The additional expenditure would result, on the one hand, from measures to cope with the corona pandemic.

On the other hand, expenses planned for 2020 would be postponed to next year.

The new debt of 218 billion euros approved for this year is expected to be far from being exhausted, said a coalition representative to Reuters.

The Ministry of Finance listed the additional expenditure in the submission sent on Sunday to the budget politicians of the Bundestag for their clean-up meeting starting on Thursday.

The adjustments for all ministries are numbered in the Reuters paper on 262 pages.

The paper does not contain a total for the new indebtedness.

The Ministry of Finance did not want to comment, but referred to the ongoing parliamentary procedure on the budget.

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In its session from Thursday to Friday, the budget committee puts the final touches on the draft budget for 2021. A representative of the coalition said that the new debt would amount to between 160 and 166 billion euros.

Compared to Scholz's submission, some pension titles would probably be canceled and interest expenses would be set somewhat lower.

Ten billion euros more for vaccines and other corona measures

A coalition representative said the proposal for the budget also contained six billion euros in equity for the railway.

The money had been earmarked for this year, but did not flow out.

The precautionary title for corona-related measures such as vaccines has been increased by ten billion euros, according to the coalition.

As a result of the car summit, a future fund at the Ministry of Economics will be equipped with one billion euros.

The Federal Foreign Office is receiving around 170 million euros more for humanitarian aid.

The Ministry of Labor gets 750 million euros more for labor market expenses such as Hartz IV.

Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) should also get significantly more money.

For the extension of compensation payments under the Hospital Financing Act, 2 billion euros are planned, for the discounted delivery of FFP2 masks 2.5 billion euros and for the procurement of vaccines around 2.7 billion euros.

Vice parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr accused the coalition of the fact that the draft represents a lot of bureaucracy and ever higher debts.

“That is the opposite of what we need now,” explained Dürr.

"We cannot keep the fourth largest economy in the world running permanently with debt."