Debt brake: We don’t have a debt problem

Germany has by far the lowest debt ratio among the major industrial nations: the government is working on an issue that actually isn’t a problem.
© Kay Nietfeld/​dpa
In an international comparison, Germany is not at the forefront everywhere. Not when it comes to education, not when it comes to the quality of public infrastructure. Not in football anyway. Only with them Debts, no one can fool us. In reality, we don’t have that many of them. At least in comparison with other countries.
A methodological note in advance: The amount of debt on its own is not very meaningful. The national debt in Germany amounts – as of 2022 and within the boundaries of the European Union – to 2,570 billion euros. That’s a lot of money, but Germany is also a very rich country with an annual economic output of over 3,000 billion euros. That is why debt is usually measured in relation to economic performance. An economically strong country can cope with higher debts than an economically weak one.