Germany’s $78.7 Billion Accountancy Error
(Reuters) - Germany is 55.5 billion euros ($78.7 billion) richer than it thought due to an accountancy error at the bad bank of nationalized mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate (HRE), the finance ministry said.
Europe’s largest economy now expects its ratio of debt to gross domestic product to be 81.1 percent for 2011, 2.6 percentage points less than previously forecast, it said.
“This is not a sum that the Swabian housewife hides in a biscuit tin and forgets,” said SPD parliamentary leader Thomas Oppermann. Swabians, from the south-west of Germany, are renowned for their savings skills.
Hypo Real Estate seems like a fitting name for a failed mortgage company. Hypo can mean “less than”, so it’s literally less than real.