According to provisional calculations, general government debt in Germany (central, state and local government and social security funds including the off-budget entities) as defined in the Maastricht Treaty amounted to approximately €2.088 trillion, or 81.2% of gross domestic product, at the end of 2011. The debt level thus increased by €32 billion on the year. The debt ratio fell by 1.8 percentage points due to a sharper increase in nominal GDP.

The financial and government debt crisis had mixed direct effects on the debt level last year: while the scaling back of financial market support measures – in particular, the repayment of capital assistance – caused the debt level to fall by €17 billion on balance, debt rose by €14 billion due to assistance loans to euro-area countries. According to provisional figures, the cumulative impact of financial market support measures on the debt level since 2008 amounts to €291 billion, or 11 ½% of GDP. Support measures in connection with the sovereign debt crisis in the euro area accounted for a total of approximately €20 billion, or 0.8% of GDP, of this. The increase in debt was accompanied, for the most part, by an increase in financial assets as defined in the national accounts, such as credit claims. A future realisation of risk assets or repayment of assistance loans will result in a decline in the debt level.

Under the European budgetary surveillance procedure, the member states of the European Union are obliged to submit data on their general government deficit and debt levels to the European Commission twice a year (end of March and end of September). For this purpose, the Federal Statistical Office calculates the Maastricht deficit (€26 billion, or 1.0% of GDP in 2011) while the Bundesbank calculates the Maastricht debt level..