German public debt reached record level last year

Germany’s public debt rose sharply last year, mainly pushed up by the government’s financial support for the ailing banks.

The public debt of the eurozone’s largest economy totaled nearly 2 trillion euro ($2.72 trillion) last year, up 18 percent or 304.4 billion euro ($414.4 billion) compared with 2009, the Federal Statistical Office said on Monday.

Germany’s public debt in 2010 was the largest debt increase in absolute terms in any year since the introduction of the statistics in 1950, the statistical office said.

The debt levels last year accounted for 80 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and burden of around 24,450 euro ($33,318) per inhabitant in the country.

The nations’s public debt burden was increased by 232.2 billion euro ($316.4 billion) due to financial support for nationalised lender Hypo Real Estate and public sector peer WestLB, reported Reuters.

Federal debt in Germany increased by 21.9 percent to 1.28 trillion euros ($1.75 trillion) last year.