– Study: Germany made €100bn profit on Greek crisis (Keep Talking Greece, Aug 10, 2015):
What? I don’t believe it! Rea-lly? Germany made a 100 billion euro profit on Greek crisis? No, kidding? HA! And yes, so it is! A study conducted by a German Economic Institute has shown that every time investors got bad news about Greece, they rushed to Germany’s ‘safe haven’ with the effect that the interest rates on German government bonds were falling!
“Greece’s biggest creditor Germany has made a huge profit on the country’s debt crisis over the last 5 years as it saved through lower interest payments on funds borrowed amid investor “flights to safety.”Each time investors got bad news about Greece, they rushed to the ‘safe haven’ of Germany, with the interest rates on German government bonds falling, according to the study from the private, non-profit Leibniz Institute of Economic Research, Agence France-Presse reported Monday.
The estimated €100 billion Germany had saved since 2010 accounted for over three percent of its GDP, the report said.
“These savings exceed the costs of the crisis – even if Greece were to default on its entire debt,” the study said.
The bonds of countries such as the United States, France and the Netherlands had benefited “to a much smaller extent.”
Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble who has always been against writing off the Greek debt pointed to his own government’s balanced budget.
The balanced budget, however, was possible mainly as a result of Germany’s interest savings through the Greek crisis, the study claimed.
Schauble has repeatedly said the Greek debt of €316 billion cannot be restructured within the eurozone. He claimed Grexit might be a solution for the country’s debt ‘haircut.’ (via RT.com)
PS and I was thinking the whole time, Germany had just the noble motive to save the euro and the euro zone :p
Merkel swallowing Greece