BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany plans to raise some 210 billion euros ($231.76 billion) by issuing bonds and similar debt instruments in 2016, nearly 13 percent more than it borrowed this year, government sources said on Monday.
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble aims to post a balanced budget in 2016 for the third consecutive year despite the ballooning costs of coping with a record influx of refugees.
Germany is shouldering much of the burden of the continent's biggest refugee crisis since World War Two, with more than one million asylum seekers expected to arrive this year alone.
Germany will need to issue more debt in 2016 because it has to pay back more old debt than it repaid this year, two persons familiar with the government's financial plans said.
Another reason is that this year's budget surplus of probably more than six billion euros will not be used to reduce the overall debt burden of 1.1 trillion euros, the sources said.
Instead, the government has decided to funnel the extra money into a reserve to pay for the costs of coping with the refugees next year.
Both sources also stressed that the planned issuing volume of some 210 billion euros in 2016 could turn out to be lower at the end of the year, as it has in 2015.
After initially having eyed a volume of roughly 200 billion euros, the government ended up borrowing 186.5 billion euros in 2015, thanks to higher-than-expected tax revenues.
($1 = 0.9061 euros)