Germany’s interest payments on its debt could go up a lot next year, the finance minister says.
BERLIN (Reuters) – Due to rising interest rates and rising debt levels, Germany’s Finance Minister, Christian Lindner, said that interest payments on the country’s public debt could reach 30 billion euros next year. He also said that he would not give in to calls to spend more.
Lindner said that he wanted to end the three years of government spending that had been used to keep the economy going during the coronavirus crisis. He also said that he wanted to put Germany’s constitutional debt brake back in place next year.
In an interview with the newspaper Welt am Sonntag, he said, “We have dangerous inflation that needs to be stopped.” “There could be less willingness to take risks in business. We can’t let this turn into a big problem for the economy.“
Germany spent 4 billion euros on interest last year, said Lindner of the business-friendly Free Democrat party. He added that he would not give in to calls from his coalition partners to spend more.
“We can’t pay for subsidies that go in the wrong direction anymore,” he said. He said that subsidies for buying electric and hybrid cars, which were available to people who made a lot of money, should be taken away.
