There is no mystery about the fact that the German government’s €500-billion stimulus package is not having positive effects on the country’s infrastructure development. One year after the Bundestag passed the Special Fund for Infrastructure and Climate Neutrality (SVIK), two institutes are giving a negative assessment of the initiative. According to [calculations]{https://www.iwkoeln.de/presse/iw-nachrichten/tobias-hentze-86-prozent-des-sondervermoegens-zweckentfremdet.html) by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW) obtained by the Reuters news agency on March 17, some 86% of the funds had been misappropriated by 2025. The Munich-based Ifo Institute puts the figure at even 95% of newly incurred debt that was not used for additional infrastructure investments. “The CDU/CSU and SPD had the chance to clear the investment backlog,” said IW researcher Tobias Hentze. “They have not taken advantage of it so far.”
Ifo President Clemens Fuest draws a similar conclusion. “We have found that policymakers have used the debt-financed funds almost entirely for other purposes, namely to plug budget holes,” he said. “That is a major problem.”
