Other economic data

Financial accounts

In the mid-1950s, the Bundesbank – as one of the first central banks in the world – had already started to compile and publish the financial accounts. The financial accounts show the complete financial system of an economy in an aggregated form. They show which sector (ie households, enterprises or government) provides or draws on financial resources to what extent and in which form. The financial accounts also show to what degree financial intermediaries (ie banks, insurances and investment funds) or capital markets as well as foreign countries are involved in the financial system. Apart from the financial transactions, the financial accounts also give information about the level of financial assets and the debt level of households, enterprises and government. They contribute to the creation of sectoral and overall financial balance sheets.

The Bundesbank uses the figures of the financial accounts, which are commented on regularly in press releases and in the Monthly Reports, to carry out studies on shifts in the financial structures. For this purpose, the relationship between the lending of domestic banks and other financing sources (capital markets, investment funds, insurances and foreign lenders), among other things, is of special interest. A study of this relationship shows the interdependence between the credit and capital markets. More importantly, however, it enables an analysis of the investment and financing behaviour of enterprises and households. This provides important indications, for example, of how the monetary policy impulses affect certain economic factors, such as consumption, production, employment etc (transmission mechanism of monetary policy). Moreover, the figures of the financial accounts are helpful towards creating indicators for the stability of the financial system.

The financial accounts are ultimately part of the national accounts, a statistical accounting system that covers the whole economy. The national accounts can record both the flow of goods in an economy and the income generated within a certain time period. The financial accounts supplement this information by including the financial transactions in an economy.

From the very beginning, the Bundesbank placed great importance on closely interlinking the data of the financial accounts and the real economic national accounts data of the Federal Statistical Office in its publications. In May 2006, the ECB also published such integrated sector accounts for the euro area for the years 1999 to 2004 for the first time. Previously, the Bundesbank focused on presenting annual figures (see Special Statistical Publication 4). Since mid-2006, quarterly figures of the financial accounts have also been available to a similar extent. These figures are reported to the ECB, which uses these figures and the contributions of the other euro-area countries to create and publish the financial accounts for the euro area.

Like the national accounts, the financial accounts are not primary statistics based on own statistical surveys. Instead, they are an analytical framework which includes various statistical sources that primarily serve other purposes. The most important sources of this kind are various Bundesbank statistics, such as the banking statistics and the balance of payments statistics. The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) provides external data, in particular regarding insurances and pension funds. The Federal Statistical Office provides statistics on the financial assets and liabilities of the government sector as well as the national accounts data on investment activity and the saving behaviour of the individual sectors.

Further methodological notes are available in Special Statistical Publication 4.