- Northern urban areas and local administrations persist in experiencing financial straits.
Northern municipality debt piles keep escalating. The financial obligations of Schleswig-Holstein's municipal bodies and associations, primarily borrowed from banks and credit unions, increased by 183 million euros or 4.5% to reach a staggering 4.2 billion euros in 2023, according to Statistics North.
These figures pertain to the primary financial standing of municipalities, specifically their budget. Extra budgets and public establishments, such as municipal hospitals and energy providers, are not part of this data.
District municipalities saw a 7.9% surge in debt, while district administrations witnessed a 5.5% hike. On a positive note, administrative offices collectively managed to decrease their debt by 0.2%.
The collective debt of independent cities decreased by 2.6%. Flensburg (down 10.1%), Kiel (down 7.1%), and Neumünster (down 5.7%) recorded significant debt reduction. Regrettably, Lübeck witnessed an increase of 6.8% in municipal debt.
In terms of debt per capita in Schleswig-Holstein, this equates to 1,423 euros. Incredibly, 309 municipalities in Schleswig-Holstein had no debt in the private sector by the end of 2023, an increase of four from the previous year. Affirmatively, Stormarn remained the only district administration with no debt at year's end.
Despite the escalating debt in northern municipality, efforts to reduce debt were observed in some areas. For instance, independent cities like Flensburg, Kiel, and Neumünster managed to decrease their municipal debt considerably. On the other hand, the Municipality of Lübeck unfortunately experienced an increase in its debt during the same period.
