Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €16.2 billion in January 2023, down €9.4 billion on the previous month’s level. 

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €16.0 billion in July 2024, down €4.6 billion on the previous month’s level. This was attributable to a lower goods account surplus and a higher deficit in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income.

It is published once a year at the end of November. The previous year is revised with the publication of the current reporting year.

According to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021 was 2.7% higher than in 2020 (in price-adjusted terms). “Economic activity in 2021 was once again highly dependent on coronavirus infection rates and the associated containment measures,” said Georg Thiel, President of the Federal Statistical Office, at a press conference in Wiesbaden.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has spoken out in favour of making the rules on debt more binding. "It would be helpful for the rules of the Stability Pact to be simplified," he said in a speech delivered in Freiburg. Furthermore, Mr Weidmann added, a more rigorous interpretation of the rules could be achieved by giving responsibility for fiscal surveillance to an independent authority instead of the European Commission.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann says that non-standard monetary policy measures can have a variety of effects on income and wealth distribution. “Much like conventional interest rate policy, the non-standard measures are more likely to have reduced income inequality,” he said in a speech in Hamburg.