2023-11-06 20:16:18
In recurring deficit, the FWB borrowed 1.2 billion euros at an average rate of 3.7%, much higher than the 2.2% negotiated with the markets in 2022.
The debt of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation should increase by An additional 1.2 billion euros in 2023 and will thus flirt with the 12 billion euros in a context of recent rise in interest rates.
In recurring deficit, the FWB borrowed 1.2 billion euros in 2023 at an average rate of 3.7%which is much more than the 2.2% negotiated with the markets in 2022, the year in which it had raised 961 million, according to figures delivered Monday by the Budget administration in committee of the Parliament of the Federation.
“In relative terms, it is barely 2% of the overall debt. It is marginal compared to all Belgian public authorities.”
In 2021, the FWB was, for the record, able to borrow more than 1.2 billion euros from a average rate of barely 0.53%, an era now long past. According to administration figures presented on Monday, the FWB’s debt weighed around 10.4 billion euros at the end of 2022, but almost 11.5 billion in reality if we apply European standards which include all loans for which the FWB has provided its guarantee.
The entire debt of the Federation thus represented, at the end of 2022, 87% of its annual revenues, a ratio which has deteriorated significantly in recent years. At the end of 2016, this was still only 58%.
Faced with these figures, the Minister of the Budget, Frédéric Daerden (PS), however wanted to be reassuring. “Our debt is true that it is increasing. But in relative terms, it is barely 2% of the overall debt (of Belgium which currently amounts to more than 500 billion, editor’s note)”, put the minister into perspective. “It’s marginal in relation to all Belgian public authorities…”, he added.
FWB debt sustainability
“Every year, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation borrows a billion euros to be able to live! Everyone knows that it can work for a while, but not all the time…”
Behind the inevitable aridity of the figures, the report paints a portrait of the FWB’s debt. More than a quarter (26%) of this is in the hands of German investors, who are ahead of the British (16%) or the French (idem). Belgian investors only hold 10% of the paper issued by the FWB.
In opposition, the deputy and former budget minister of the FWB, André Antoine (Les Engagés), did not hide his fears for the sustainability of the FWB’s debt in light of the figures presented on Monday. “Every year, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation borrows a billion euros to be able to live! Everyone knows that it can work for a while, but not all the time…”, he warned.
After the Debt Agency this Monday, the Budget Committee of the Parliament of the Federation should hear within 15 days the Court of Auditors regarding its recent report on the accounts of the French-speaking entity.
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