Unlike in Russia, in Germany, it is almost impossible to get a high post and forget about previous mistakes. Free press and conscious civil society will not lose a chance to point out mistakes made even by the head of state. Olaf Scholz is no exception as all his wrong actions taken as a finance minister were severely criticized.
Journalists at RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland have carefully studied the solutions made by the current German chancellor when he served as a finance minister. They have concluded that financial policy mistakes made by the former finance minister have cost billions of euros. The journalists’ inferences are also proved by the information provided in the internal document of the Ministry of Finance. According to the data, Olaf Scholz like Wolfgang Schäuble, who previously held the post of head of the Ministry of Finance, “proceeded from the policy of issuing bonds tied to inflation”. As a result, they failed to correctly evaluate the risk of rising prices. Germany now needs larger sums to service the debt.
Recent estimates unveiled that in 2023, interest expenses may double to almost 30 billion euros from 16 billion euros. In the structure of the country’s debt, the share of inflation-linked bonds totals about 5%. Meanwhile, the cost of payments on these bonds hits a quarter of the total amount needed to service the public debt.
