The municipal debt
In the report series 'The Municipal Debt,' Kommuninvest tracks the development of the municipal sector's investments and indebtedness. The report is unique because both investments and debt are analyzed from a group perspective. This means that activities conducted in corporate form are also included in the report's data.
The group perspective is important for obtaining an accurate overall picture of a municipality's or region's economic and financial position because:
- An increasing part of municipal activities is being corporatized. For example, more and more municipalities have transferred their service and operational facilities to subsidiaries in recent years.
- Municipal sector companies account for about half of the sector's investments but for the majority of the external debt.
The data in this report is based on information obtained from the municipalities' and regions' own annual reports. This report lags by a year in the sense that the 2023 edition pertains to data from 2022. Information on investment levels and debt for all municipalities and regions is available for the years 2010–2022 on Kommuninvest's website.
Summary of the 2023 Report
The total investments in the municipal sector amounted to 193 billion SEK in 2022. This was an increase of 13 billion SEK, corresponding to 7.3 percent, compared to 2021. Thus, the investment level increased again after two years of declining investment volumes. The average investment growth over time has been approximately 5.9 percent per year.
The total debt of the municipal sector amounted to 820 billion SEK at the end of 2022. This was an increase of 21 billion SEK, corresponding to a growth rate of 2.7 percent. The growth rate in 2022 is the lowest since Kommuninvest began compiling debt data in 2007. This contrasts sharply with an average annual growth rate of 6.4 percent for the years 2007–2021. The average debt per capita in 2022 was 77,932 SEK. However, the debt's share of GDP decreased from 14.6 percent in 2021 to 13.8 percent in 2022.