Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has conflicting views on the United States’ decision to initially exempt the European Union from the recently enacted tariffs on steel and aluminium. Though it avoided an open trade conflict, the agreement reached between the United States and the EU was no victory for international free trade, Mr Weidmann explained during a speech in Vienna.

Agustín Carstens, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements, says central banks should pay special attention to the ties linking cryptocurrencies to real currencies. If cryptocurrencies become more interconnected with the main financial system, they could become a threat to financial stability, he said in a lecture delivered in Frankfurt am Main.

In the current issue of the Monthly Report, Bundesbank economists state that an accommodative monetary policy can, in a low-interest-rate setting, put a damper on lending business if commercial banks hold only a small amount of capital. In and of itself, such a relationship would counter the desired effects of an accommodative monetary policy.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann says the Eurosystem’s asset purchase programme should be discontinued this year if growth in consumer price inflation remains upbeat. Speaking to the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, he said he is confident that the Eurosystem is on a path towards its target inflation rate of below, but close to, 2%.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has cautioned against increasing mutual liability in the euro area and thus weakening the principle of individual national responsibility. Addressing an audience in Frankfurt am Main, Mr Weidmann said that while the fiscal rescue measures had prevented the crisis from escalating, they had not made the euro area permanently crisis-proof.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies, advocated strengthening inclusive growth. Leaving everything to the markets has failed, he said in a lecture held at the invitation of the Bundesbank at the Goethe University in Frankfurt.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann supports the European Central Bank’s plans to reduce non-performing loans, as they weigh on financing conditions and, ultimately, growth prospects in the member states concerned. Rules need to be established that ensure the prudent management of non-performing loans in the future, said Weidmann in Frankfurt am Main.

The Eurosystem should not maintain its current accommodative monetary policy stance indefinitely, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann says. Speaking at an event in Leipzig, he said it is legitimate to ask whether it would not have been better to set a clear end-date for the recently extended asset purchase programme.