Germany has saved €80bn since start of crisis

German chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has saved €80bn since the start of the financial crisis as a result of declining bond yields, the Institute for the World Economy has said.

Interest payments last year were about €10bn lower than they would have been under a “benchmark scenario” that uses average yields in the decade before the crisis, the institute said in a report.

This year’s savings for the federal government will amount to about €13bn, it said. The period covers 2009-13.