Various specialised procedures are made available in the Bundesbank’s ExtraNet for the electronic submission of payment and stock reports in data record formats.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has sounded a warning against attaching too much importance to Germany’s high current account surplus. At a conference in Frankfurt am Main hosted jointly by the Bundesbank and the International Monetary Fund, he explained that it was partly a reflection of the very accommodative monetary policy in the euro area.

The Bundesbank sees signs of a more rapid upturn in economic activity in Germany than widely expected. In its latest Monthly Report, the Bundesbank cites the positive consumer climate as well as favourable developments in industrial orders and output as factors underpinning this. The economists expect the dramatic fall in crude oil prices to have a marked effect on growth.

The German economy's underlying cyclical trend is fairly robust. According to the projection, this year's economic growth is being additionally boosted by purchasing power gains resulting from renewed falls in crude oil prices and from an expansionary fiscal policy.

Inflation in Germany has fluctuated strongly in the past eight years. The Bundesbank's economists have now examined the extent to which the Phillips curve model explains recent price developments. Import and energy prices have turned out to be particularly decisive.