Juncker: "German debt level is a cause for concern. Germany has debt too, more than Spain."

[Turkophagos]

Juncker says German debt cause for concern

BERLIN | Wed Nov 16, 2011 11:48am EST

(Reuters) - Eurogroup head Jean-Claude Juncker was quoted in a German newspaper on Wednesday saying that Germany's debt level is worrying and even higher than Spain's.

In an interview to appear in Thursday's General-Anzeiger newspaper in Bonn, Juncker also said it would be a disastrous scenario if Greece were to exit the euro zone.

"I consider the level of German debts to be a cause for concern," Juncker said.

"Germany has higher debts than Spain," he added. "The only thing is that here (in Germany) no one wants to know about that."

Juncker said Greece was on the right path. But if it were to leave the euro zone it would lead to a "disastrous scenario".

(Reporting By Erik Kirschbaum and Veronica Ek)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...7AF1RK20111116



Germany has debt too, more than Spain: Juncker


(BERLIN) - The head of eurozone finance ministers has said Germany, before lecturing its partners, should remember that it, too, has a debt higher than Spain's, in a newspaper interview.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker called the level of Germany's debt "worrying", according to an advanced copy of an interview with the Bonner General-Anzeiger newspaper to appear Thursday.

"In Germany, people often act as if the country had no problems, as if Germany is free of debt and all the others had excessive debts," he told the German paper.

"I think the level of German debt is worrying. Germany has higher debts than Spain. Only nobody here wants to know that," he said.

"It appears to be more comfortable to say the people in the South are lazy and the Germans are grafters. But it is not so."

Asked about Berlin's influence on decisions taken in the eurozone, Juncker underscored that Germany was the leading economy and was an "engine" which nobody could replace if it broke down.


http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/finance-economy.djh

[Albion]

The main difference being that Germany has been deemed able to pay off this debt unlike the countries in trouble on the periphery.
The same applies for France and Britain too, all three have the largest debts in Europe but also the largest economies and are hopefully able to pay it off eventually. Most of the debt is long-term in these three whereas it is short-term in the "PIIGS" which means the latter have to pay it back sooner.

[Treffie]

Eurozone debt web: Who owes what to whom?

[Tony]

Japan has a public debt 4 times that of Spain and USA's about 100%, why is it that these two countries are speculation-proof?

maybe we should learn something by them...

that is or a central Bank who works as last borrower, like in the USA, or concentrating bonds in native hands, like in Japan, by for example forbidding the selling of bonds to foreigners.

[European blood]

Costas Lapavitsas: Regulation is not enough, the public must take over the financial system.

[YOUTUBE]R5Ep5rf14oA[/YOUTUBE]

[Turkophagos]

"In Germany, people often act as if the country had no problems, as if Germany is free of debt and all the others had excessive debts," he told the German paper.

"I think the level of German debt is worrying. Germany has higher debts than Spain. Only nobody here wants to know that," he said.

German bonds 'disaster' rings alarm bells


November 24, 2011

A botched sale of German bonds rang alarm bells in Berlin on Wednesday, with opposition lawmakers calling it a sign the euro zone's debt woes were coming home to roost and slamming Angela Merkel's government for failing to spell out the true risks of the crisis to Germans.

Senior members of the chancellor's Christian Democrats (CDU) mostly played down the significance of the 10-year bond auction, in which commercial banks ended up buying just 3.64 billion euros of the 6 billion euros in bonds Germany had on offer.

But other politicians were less kind.

Frank Schaeffler, a eurosceptic parliamentarian from the Free Democrats (FDP), who rule together with Merkel's conservatives, said it showed the debt crisis was "burying ever deeper, like a worm" and had now reached Germany.

Carsten Schneider, budget spokesman for the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) in parliament, described it as the first concrete sign that the crisis which started in Greece two years ago and has since spread across the 17-nation euro zone like a virus would not pass Germany by.

"The time has come for the chancellor and finance minister to tell people the truth about the costs and risks that our country now faces," Schneider told Reuters. "Germany won't be able to finance itself forever with rock-bottom interest rates."

Financial markets viewed the bond shock as another setback.

“This auction is nothing short of a disaster for Germany,” Mark Grant, a managing director at Southwest Securities Inc. in Florida, said by e-mail. “If the strongest nation in Europe has this kind of difficulty raising capital, one shudders concerning the upcoming auctions in other European nations.

Merkel shift

After initially painting the crisis as a problem for certain euro countries that irresponsibly ran up their debts, Merkel has changed her rhetoric in recent months, warning increasingly about the costs to Germany if the bloc is allowed to fall apart, as some experts now predict.

At a party congress last week she said Europe faced perhaps its "toughest hour" since World War Two. But for many Germans the crisis has not hit home. The economy remains buoyant, unemployment is at its lowest levels since reunification in 1990 and German firms say they have strong order backlogs.

Germany has been seen as a safe haven by investors since the crisis erupted. While the borrowing costs of vulnerable single currency members on Europe's southern periphery have shot up to euro-era highs, those of Germany have sunk ever lower.

But as the crisis has deepened, toppling governments in Rome and Athens, and hitting bigger economies like Italy, Spain and even Germany's neighbour France, worries about the costs to Europe's paymaster have risen.

One analyst called the bond sale, which pushed the euro and stocks lower, a "complete and utter disaster" that did not bode well for Germany and the wider bloc.

"The crisis of confidence is knocking on Germany's door for the first time," Gerhard Schick, a finance expert for the opposition Greens, told Reuters.

The head of the German Debt Agency Carl Heinz Daube blamed "extremely nervous markets" for the poor result. He said the retained amount, roughly 39 per cent of the planned volume of 6 billion euros, would be sold on the secondary market and rejected the notion that Wednesday's weak sale would affect planned debt sales in the coming weeks.

Lawmakers from Merkel's party also scrambled to play down the auction, blaming the result on the low returns offered - just 2 per cent annually over 10 years.

"The situation is not dramatic at all," Norbert Barthle, a CDU budget expert told Reuters.

"The fact that the interest rate offered is around the inflation rate means no profit for investors. It should be no surprise, because the debt crisis has meant an investor flight away from sovereign debt," he said.

His conservative colleague in the Bundestag, Michael Meister, warned against reading too much into the sale but conceded it gave reason for vigilance.

"It's really not that dramatic. This kind of thing happens every now and then with bond placements," Meister told Reuters.

"We need to remain substantive and responsible. This placement really doesn't justify the war cries that we're hearing from the opposition and euro opponents."


Reuters, with Bloomberg



http://www.theage.com.au/business/wo...124-1nvfq.html

[Leliana]

Juncker is the largest blithering idiot under the European sky right behind Barroso. He's anti-German and a totalitarian monster.

[Turkophagos]

Everyone who mentions that Germany has an 82% (of its GDB) debt is anti-German then.


Today's "German bonds disaster" doesn't seem to ring a bell to Krauts.

[Leliana]

Everyone who mentions that Germany has an 82% (of its GDB) debt is anti-German then.

Yes, Germany has a national debt of 2 trillion € and that's why we can't and don't want to save the rest of Europa and don't want to be made liable for the faults and debts of other countries by Euro Bonds or other retarded ideas. It would lead to our ruin and to the ruin of all others because we would lose our stable AAA+ rankings and then the strongest economy of Europe is fallen. All others would follow like in a Domino game.

Today's "German bonds disaster" doesn't seem to ring a bell to Krauts.

Some EU politicians begin to blackmail Germany to accept Euro Bonds and I hope our government stays rigid. But I don't have much hope: Our politicians sell us out and their Euro is more important than the people.

The situation is a disaster and I can't stand the news. Chimo Bayo, we aren't so much different! We both hate what's going on and that our countries are sold out. Greece suffers under decisions of the German government and Germany suffers under decisions of other EU governments and decisions of the EU commission.

[Albion]

Everyone who mentions that Germany has an 82% (of its GDB) debt is anti-German then.


Today's "German bonds disaster" doesn't seem to ring a bell to Krauts.

The difference is that Germany, France and Britain have been deemed able to pay and have much larger and stronger economies and are the three main economic players in Europe.