Berlin – It has been ten years since Europe had to save Greece from bankruptcy. Today the economy is growing, the debt is shrinking – Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis (42) came to Berlin with good news: Greece wants to pay debts of 5.29 billion euros by the beginning of December – 2.2 billion of them to Germany.
Greece still has the highest debt ratio in the EU, but the country managed to get out of the red zone faster than expected. In 2024 Greece Business by 2.3 percent, while Germany’s gross domestic product fell by 0.2 percent in the same year.
Meanwhile, debt continues to pile up in Germany. In the coming years, the federal government wants to take out loans worth three digit billions. At the same time, interest rates are rising – but tax revenues are stagnating. Because the economy is at a standstill: According to annual reports, gross domestic product will grow by only 0.2 percent in 2025, and experts estimate it at 0.9 percent in 2026.
“Greece is no longer a dirty child”
Leading economist Sebastian Dullien analyzed: “Greece has benefited greatly from the fact that Greece is no longer considered a dirty country in the financial markets.” This compensates for the losses they experienced during the crisis: “It was easy to grow from a lower level.”
▶︎ The problem Germany faces is weakening foreign demand: “As a country that was once a leading country in exports, we have suffered greatly from Donald Trump’s tariffs and China’s aggressive industrial policy,” explains Dullien.
However: “Germany has much lower debt than Greece and also much lower debt than other large industrial countries. Therefore, Germany does not need to worry about the sustainability of its debt.”
▶︎ Jörg Krämer, chief economist at Commerzbank, explains why the comparison of the two piles of debt is flawed:
“Germany has been indebted to private investors. Greece was bailed out during the national debt crisis. This means that the lion’s share of Greece’s national debt is made up of public loans – mainly from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union’s rescue fund. You can’t compare it with Germany’s national debt.”
▶︎ Economics professor Jan Schnellenbach sees Greece’s progress as a result of rigorous reforms: “Correspondingly, the country is now growing strongly and can quickly reduce its debt.”
Germany is not facing a major and acute crisis. However: “We are in a slow decline, which may be even more dangerous.” There are no “major signals of crisis” in the future. Instead, what is happening is “a growing decline in well-being, which politicians unfortunately consider less urgent than the acute crisis,” Schnellenbach warned.
▶︎ Greece has implemented painful reforms on its citizens, says President Clemens Fuest. That deserves respect. “In Germany, reforms are not taking place,” Fuest said. However, Germany is “fortunately still far away” from the kind of national bankruptcy that once threatened Greece.
