BERLIN (Reuters) - Falling tax revenues will create a cumulative shortfall of 100 billion euros ($112 billion) in Germany's budget by 2023, according to an internal finance ministry assessment reported by Bild newspaper on Wednesday.
The tax revenue forecast shows a marked decline since the last such survey was conducted in January, when the shortfall was 15.5 billion euros less, Bild said.
Evidence is growing that Germany's decade-long economic boom is petering out, with only a still-dynamic services sector keeping the economy from entering a more serious downturn.
According to the document, Bild said, the finance ministry sees a 11.1 billion euro shortfall against tax revenues this year, which will grow to 14.1 billion, 16.5 billion, 17.1 billion and then 18.2 billion euros over the following four years.
Including regional and local budgets, the cumulative shortfall will exceed 100 billion, the newspaper said.
Finance ministry spokespeople were not immediately available for comment.
Olaf Scholz, finance minister in Chancellor Angela Merkel's fractious coalition, is facing demands from her conservatives and his Social Democrats over costly investment programs to help prepare German industry for the digital revolution, the electric car era and the transition to green energy.
"Now we're paying the price for the grand coalition not having put aside at least a bit of money for harder times," Otto Fricke, the budget spokesman for the opposition, pro-business Free Democrats, was quoted by Bild as saying.