Burkhard Balz is the member of the Bundesbank’s Executive Board tasked with the future implementation of the digital euro. However, the success of the project is not automatically assured. In an interview, Mr Balz explains where there is resistance, what it will entail for us, what the future of cash will look like and what we will see on new banknotes.

Since September, the Bundesbank provides a new research dataset “Analytical Credit Datasets (AnaCredit) – German Part”. 

The German part of AnaCredit includes data on individual loans reported by credit institutions based in Germany, as well as by foreign branches of German institutions and legally independent institutional units domiciled in Germany, regardless of the location of their parent entities.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved an extremely large general allocation of special drawing rights (SDRs) to its member states. The new allocation triples the total stock of SDRs to a new level of roughly SDR 660 billion. Germany is set to receive around €30 billion worth of additional SDRs.

As the IMF's sister organisation, the World Bank – like the multilateral development banks whose focus is regional – aims to promote economic development in its less developed member countries by providing financial and technical assistance and sharing knowledge. Developing such countries' financial sectors is an important aspect.

The Governing Council today decided to lower the three key ECB interest rates by 25 basis points. In particular, the decision to lower the deposit facility rate – the rate through which the Governing Council steers the monetary policy stance – is based on its updated assessment of the inflation outlook, the dynamics of underlying inflation and the strength of monetary policy transmission.