\n<\/p>\n
Germany’s public spending ratio – which tracks government expenditure against gross national product – rose to 49.5% in 2024, due to an increase in welfare and social expenditure, the country’s statistical office Destatis said on Friday.<\/p>\n
The quota was up by 1.1 percentage points compared to 2023, while it was 2.2 percentage points above the long-term yearly average since 1991, the agency said in a press release.<\/p>\n
The public spending ratio is used to measure state spending in relation to overall production in a country.<\/p>\n
Germany’s public spending ratio reached its highest level a few years after reunification in 1995, when the figure soared to 55.2%, as the government took over debt from the Treuhand, an agency established amid the collapse of the East German regime to privatize East German companies ahead of reunification.<\/p>\n
The ratio also soared to similarly high levels during the coronavirus pandemic, reaching 51.1% in 2020 and 50.7% in 2021, amid increased government spending to provide Covid-19 testing and vaccines and keep businesses afloat amid the lockdowns.<\/p>\n
Germany saw its lowest public spending ratio in 2007 with 43.5%.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n