European comparison finds Germany most worried about financial future

A comparison of five European countries has found that Germans are the most worried about finances. 24 percent of respondents said they are worried about being able to pay the bills on time.

Germans increasingly worried about financial security

A survey of 6.000 people living in five European countries - Germany, France, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom - has found that people in Germany are the most worried about how they might become more financially insecure in the coming months.

“Worries about the financial future have reached the middle of society,” Frank Schlein of Crif, a German information service provider which works with financial institutions and conducted the survey, said of the results. “Eight out of 10 people in Germany are worried about their financial future - that is a stark warning sign,” Schlein added.

Germany is currently the only shrinking economy in Europe, and in 2024, it recorded its second consecutive year in recession. More German companies closed in 2024 than in 2011, during the previous financial crisis, with many hit hard by rising energy costs and a record-high worker shortage.

Hoping to boost the economy, Germany has scrapped its debt brake law and passed Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s (CDU) 500-billion-euro spending plan in March. The money will be spent over 12 years to modernise the country’s ageing infrastructure, hospitals, schools, roads and public transport. The special fund also includes unlimited defence spending.

What financial worries do people have in Germany?

Crif cited rising costs as the main reason that people in Germany were worried about becoming financially insecure. According to the survey, 24 percent of participants in Germany said they were worried about being able to pay the bills on time. 31 percent said they were worried about their financial situation getting worse. 

32 percent said they were paying more rent or more towards home finances than five years ago, and 44 percent said their general living costs had risen. 59 percent said they had been trying to cut costs for the past year.

U-turning on a major election promise, Germany’s CDU-SPD coalition announced in July that it would scrap plans for electricity tax cuts for private homes. The tax cut will go ahead for manufacturing, agriculture and forestry companies.

In June this year, figures from the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development revealed that rents in the 14 largest German cities are on average 50 percent more expensive than they were in 2015. 

Average rents in Munich (22,64 euros per square metre) and Frankfurt (19,62 euros per square metre) are still the most expensive in the country. However, Berlin, Leipzig and Bremen have seen the biggest increase in rents over the past decade.

Politicians from across the political spectrum have called on the federal government to update Germany’s rent brakes and caps to counter these extreme increases.