Policy Brief #2013/01: <br/>How Germany Benefits from the Euro in Economic Terms

There can be no doubt about the fact that Germany benefits from the euro in a significant number of ways. For example, monetary union membership helps to reduce the cost of international trade, and provides protection against excessive exchange rate volatility. This means that even if Germany had to write off a large percentage of the loans that it has made available to the heavily indebted states of southern Europe as part of the various euro rescue measures, the economic advantages of its membership of the monetary union would continue to predominate. Reverting to the deutschmark would thus be disadvantageous even in purely economic terms.