“With a record result in investments, repayments and adjusted annual result, Hamburg can draw a positive conclusion for the 2023 budget and financial year despite difficult conditions,” said Dressel. There were two reasons for the windfall: firstly, dividend payments from the shipping company Hapag-Lloyd amounting to around 1.5 billion euros and an adjustment in the tax trend procedure. Almost 2.5 billion euros of this surplus could have been placed in the general reserve.
Records were also set in terms of investments and loan repayments. For example, the city of Hamburg, excluding its municipal holdings, invested almost 1.9 billion euros – after just under 1.3 billion euros in 2022. Including the group’s subsidiaries, around 5.3 billion euros were invested, for example in school and housing construction or transport, energy and social infrastructure.
New loans totaling 291 million euros were taken out. Almost 2.7 billion euros would have been permitted. At the same time, Corona loans totaling around 483 million euros were fully repaid early last year. In total, debts totaling almost 2.5 billion euros were repaid – which reduced the deficit in core administration from around 25.12 billion euros in 2022 to 22.67 billion euros last year.
