German finance minister Schaeuble: aims to issue no new debt from 2015, cut debt to GDP below 60% within 10 years

German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble (in an advance copy of an interview with Focus magazine seen on Sunday) said :

• Aims to issue no new debt from 2015
• To cut the level of debt to GDP to below 60% (currently around 80%) within 10 years
• Did not mention plans to pay back Germany’s just over 2 trillion euro debt
• “We want to issue … no new debt at all from 2015 and to keep that from then on”
• “The debt ratio decreases automatically if we issue no new debt and if the economy continues to grow”
• “Our medium-term financial planning up to 2017 gives us some leeway but we can only count on that if we continue on our growth-friendly path”
• “We believe tax increases are counter-productive. That’s the basis on which we negotiate”