Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €16.5 billion in August 2020, down €4.6 billion from the previous month’s level.

The financial assets of households rose by €64 billion, or 1.3%, on the previous quarter to €4,871 billion by the end of the third quarter.

The financial assets of households increased by €23 billion, or 0.5% on the quarter, to €5,027 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2013.

According to Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann central banks could do more to curb global warming. In an op-ed for the “Financial Times” he pointed out a number of possible courses of action. However, he added, central banks should stay focused on their primary objective, price stability. “When it comes to saving the planet, central banks do not have a magic wand”, he wrote.

Selected results of the financial accounts by sector

At the end of the first quarter of 2013, the financial assets of households rose by €52 billion, or 1.1%, on the previous quarter to just under €4,992 billion. The acquisition of financial assets was comparable to the first quarters of the previous years, with only a small percentage of this increase, around €5 billion, attributable to capital market gains.

“The German economy is overcoming the coronavirus crisis and is poised for the start of a strong upswing,” writes the Bundesbank in its semi-annual projection. The Bundesbank’s economists expect that gross domestic product will reattain its pre-crisis level as early as this summer. It is likely that the rate of inflation will rise strongly to 2.6% in 2021.

In the Bundesbank’s estimation, the German economy is likely to have stagnated in the final quarter of 2019. The two-speed development of the economy continued, according to the latest Monthly Report.