The advantages or disadvantages firms experience as a result of their size, referred to in the economic literature as returns to scale, are of central importance in many economic models. Increasing returns to scale, whereby unit costs decrease as output volume increases, could explain productivity differences between Europe and the United States. We present fresh evidence on the returns to scale of European firms: most exhibit constant returns to scale, but a non-trivial share also show increasing returns to scale.

Die Europäische Zentralbank (EZB) hat heute eine langfristige Partnerschaft mit der Florence School of Banking and Finance des Europäischen Hochschulinstituts zur Entwicklung eines Schulungsprogramms für alle Fachleute aus der europäischen Bankenaufsicht initiiert.

Die Unternehmen im Euro-Währungsgebiet teilten mit, dass sich ihre Geschäftstätigkeit weiter verbessert habe. Allerdings wirkten sich steigende Material-, Energie- und Arbeitskosten nachteilig auf die Ertragslage aus.

Lending business traditionally plays a predominant role in an institution's development, but it is concurrently one of the main sources of banking risks. Besides limiting the business volume by requiring institutions to back counterparty risks with eligible own funds pursuant to CRR, the German Banking Act and CRR contain specific provisions concerning lending business.

In a joint interview, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel and François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Banque de France, discussed “Germany, France and inflation – ways out of the crisis”. Their discussion centred on the question of when the current monetary policy stance will bear fruit and the medium-term inflation target of 2% will be achieved again. “I am firmly convinced that we will see significantly lower inflation rates from 2024 onwards. We will reach 2% with the monetary policy measures we have initiated this year,” Mr Nagel said.