Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €16.6 billion in August 2023, down €2.2 billion on the previous month’s level. While the balance in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income, moved into positive territory, there was a sharper decline in the surplus in the goods account.

Helmut Schlesinger was president of Germany’s central bank from 1991 to 1993 and is considered a guardian of the culture of stability. This was a culture he established not just within the Bundesbank, but throughout society, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel writes in an op-ed article in the business daily “Börsen-Zeitung”.