The so-called capital collection centers - banks, insurance companies, companies and pension funds - invest billions of euros of the savings made in Germany abroad every year.
That is the result of the German export successes.
When a country has a trade surplus, it inevitably means exporting savings abroad.
This export takes place in the form of credits or direct investments abroad.
Since Germany has had trade surpluses for years, we have been exporting a considerable amount of capital for years.
Germany now has the second largest net foreign assets after Japan with almost 2,500 billion US dollars.
Around 300 billion US dollars are added each year.
In theory, we use it to build up wealth that we can sell at a later point in time, for example when the consequences of demographic change occur, in order to maintain our standard of living.
The problem, however, is that we don't invest the money well overseas.