In 2020, the Bundesbank registered approximately 58,800 counterfeit euro banknotes with a nominal value of €2.9 million in German payments. The number of counterfeits thus rose by 6.5% on the year, while the nominal value of the banknotes seized fell by 14.3%.

The Bundesbank’s National Analysis Centre in Mainz receives around 30,000 requests every year for the replacement of damaged cash. In order to facilitate reconstruction in cases involving a large number of banknote fragments, the Bundesbank joined forces with the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology (Fraunhofer IPK) to develop a digital system for reconstructing badly damaged euro banknotes based on “ePuzzler” technology.

The Bundesbank expects the German economy to grow strongly again after a limited setback in the final quarter of 2020 and first quarter of 2021. According to current projections, real gross domestic product could pick up sharply in the following two years and reach its pre-crisis level again in early 2022. This is predicated on the pandemic containment measures being quickly loosened from spring 2021 and ultimately expiring altogether in the early months of 2022.