Interest payments on German public debt have increased 10 times since 2021, from €4 billion to €40 billion, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said on Monday, February 27, in his Twitter-account.
“The country’s debt burden has grown from €4 billion to €40 billion since 2021. This is money that we will miss in the future for other purposes: education, digitalization and investment in climate protection,” he wrote.
Based on this, according to him, it is economically expedient to restrain the growth of debts. At the same time, Lindner noted that Germany will continue to strengthen its energy security, as well as increase assistance to Ukraine and strengthen its armed forces.
Germany’s national debt exceeds €2.3 trillion and, according to the IMF, is 68.3% of GDP.
Last week in an interview with T Online Lindner specified that the increase in debt was caused by the adoption of emergency measures during the COVID-19 pandemic and the energy crisis. In this regard, he noted that the government needs to limit its spending, and therefore the state will not be able to solve such current economic problems as falling wealth.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, in January annual inflation in Germany amounted to 8.7% against 8.6% a month earlier. The energy crisis of last year, largely caused by EU sanctions against Russia due to a special operation to protect Donbass, led to such indicators.
Last July, columnist Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten Mark Friedrich wrote that Germany, as a result of anti-Russian sanctions and the illiterate energy policy of Berlin, found itself in the largest crisis in recent decades that threatens its existence.
In April of the same year, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that the refusal of a number of Western countries from normal cooperation with Russia, as well as from part of Russian energy resources, had already hit Europe and the United States. Prices are rising everywhere and inflation is skyrocketing.
