A new study released on Monday revealed that Germany has profited immensely from Greece’s debt crisis. The export champion of Europe has saved $111 billion over the last five years due to investors’ “flights to safety.”

The study, conducted by the private, non-profit Leibniz Institute of Economic Research, showed that each time investors got bad news about Greece, they rushed to the “safe haven” of Germany. As a result, Germany’s interest payments on borrowed funds significantly lowered.

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Germany has disproportionately benefited from these next-to-nothing interest rates, according to the report. The $111 billion it has saved amounts to over 3 percent of its gross domestic product. Government bonds in other countries such as the United States, France and the Netherlands have benefited but to a much smaller extent.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble continuously opposes writing off the Greek debt, citing his own government’s balanced budget. However, according to the study, the balanced budget was made possible due to Germany’s interest savings through the Greek crisis.

The study even went so far as to say that “even if Greece doesn’t pay back a single cent, the German public purse has benefited financially from the crisis.”

Financial gains are not the only benefit that Germany has reaped from the Greek depression. Germany has also essentially secured sovereign control over Greece, and hence its Mediterranean ports, through the new bailout deal. So expect more economic crises in Europe. As long as current trends hold, Germany has little motivation to permanently solve Europe’s economic crisis. In fact, further economic crisis works to its advantage. To find out more about this, and where it is heading, read “Greece Euro Crisis Reveals That Germany Rules Europe.”