Visitors braved the wet autumn weather to flock to the Bundesbank’s offices in the Frankfurt city centre, where the Bank opened its doors to the general public this weekend. The two-day event, entitled “Backstage Bundesbank”, offered a variety of activities for visitors, including a discovery tour around the Bank’s Regional Office in Frankfurt, along with the chance to lift a gold bar, attend a variety of topical talks and meet Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel in person.

According to the most recent issue of the Bundesbank’s Monthly Report, German credit institutions recorded a strong improvement in performance in 2021 compared with the year before. Profit for the financial year before tax was up €12.8 billion, hitting almost double the previous year’s figure at €27.1 billion – a development which the report primarily attributes to the fact that banks significantly scaled back their risk provisioning compared with 2020 and also released some of the risk provisions that they had formed that year. However, the current year could see the profitability of German banks dampened, in particular, by the repercussions of the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine. The report explains that this might increasingly impair economic growth, which would increase the likelihood of credit losses.

Die Leistungsbilanz wies im Juli 2022 ein Defizit von 20 Mrd € auf (nach einem Überschuss von 4 Mrd € im Vormonat). Der Leistungsbilanzüberschuss belief sich in den zwölf Monaten bis Juli 2022 auf 63 Mrd € (0,5 % des BIP des Euroraums), verglichen mit 370 Mrd € (3,1 % des BIP des Euroraums) im Zwölfmonatszeitraum bis Juli 2021.