Germany made billions from loans to Greece

EPA/PATRICK SEEGER via Naftemporiki
Germany has earned billions of Euro from the aid given to Athens over the past decade. A new Bild report published this week, claims that  Germany’s central bank, The Bundesbank, has earned 3.44 billion euros in profits from the performance of Greek state bonds that it holds.

The information, according to Bild comes from a response by the federal government to a  parliamentary question by the German Green party who have in the past argued for the return of all profits from the Greek loans back to Athens.

The profits come from a range of programs that Germany and other euro-zone countries, who are also stand to profit, including a €393-million profit generated from a 2010 loan by the development bank KfW, which is owned by the German government.

The ECB also collected more than €1.1 billion in interest payments in 2016 on the nearly €20 billion-worth of Greek bonds it owns.   In 2017 the profits reached  €901 million, earmarked for redistribution to euro zone’s 19 member states.