Germany’s pro-pensioner policy has ended up being anti-pensioner

The prospect of population ageing has led to high precautionary savings in Germany by both the government and households. This policy is assumed to be good for pensioners, since the accumulation of assets in principle enables a higher standard of living for pensioners in the future. But in reality, Germany’s policy is becoming very bad for pensioners: due to the restrictive fiscal policy and high household savings, long-term interest rates have become highly negative in Germany, leading to a very low return on savings and reducing the purchasing power of future pensioners.