International workshop | 21.–23.02.2024

The July 2017 edition of the Monthly Report describes the market for bonds issued by non-financial corporations in the low-interest-rate environment and developments in government interest expenditure in Germany and other euro area countries. It also contains articles on private interest income developments, taking into account inflation and taxes, as well as on the threats to the global economy posed by protectionist tendencies. Finally, the report also introduces the latest innovations in the monetary financial institutions’ (MFI) interest rate statistics.

The root causes of the Great Depression from 1929 to 1933 have been researched extensively. In this context, economic historians view central bank policy as having played a pivotal role, something which empirical modelling often fails to confirm. A new study likewise examines this influence empirically, but more explicitly takes into account the functioning of the international monetary system at the time – the international gold standard.