To service its debts Germany faced the need to transfer abroad interest and principal totalling something close to 1 billion Reichsmarks per annum, and, given the unavailability of new credit, in the 1930s unlike in the 1920s Germany faced the prospect of having to make ‘real transfers’. It could not simply borrow afresh to repay its creditors. If Germany was to service its debts, exports would have to exceed German imports by at least 1 billion Reichsmarks. This meant a substantial reduction in the standard of living.
