Federal finances: Federal budget for 2027 is in place – at least provisionally

The committee met all night and was way behind schedule. Now it's done, the budget is in place - at least almost: there is still one question that needs to be clarified.

Lars Klingbeil (SPD): The Federal Finance Minister can present a budget. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa

Berlin. The provisional federal budget for the coming year is ready. After the latest changes, the Bundestag's budget committee approved a budget with spending of around 560.9 billion euros early this morning. This means that the federal government will be able to spend more money next year than ever before.

However, it remains unclear whether the coalition can finance a reduction in electricity taxes for everyone. This could still be submitted to the Bundestag during the budget week.

In the core budget, the committee decided on net borrowing of almost 123 billion euros. That's around four billion euros more than was planned in the federal government's first draft. In addition, there are credit-financed investments from special funds for infrastructure and the Bundeswehr, so that the total debt is likely to add up to more than 200 billion euros.

Whether the reduction in electricity tax pushed by Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) will still come will be clarified at the coalition committee on Tuesday. The Union and the SPD have not found any funding for this in the budget negotiations so far. The project from the coalition agreement would cost around five billion euros, but it would only provide a few euros in relief for citizens.

The Bundestag is scheduled to finally vote on the budget during the week of its session from November 24th to 27th. The budget determines how much money the individual ministries can spend in 2027 and which projects will be financed with it.