Bundesbank economists have studied the factors that have influenced Germany’s TARGET balances over the past 20 years. The results show that the growth of the balances can be divided into four periods. The decline in German TARGET claims in 2018 and 2019 was due in large part to lower and, for a time, discontinued net asset purchases of the Eurosystem, write the Bundesbank’s experts.

Executive Board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele hailed the success of the TARGET2 payment system as he marked ten years since its launch.

To mark its 60th anniversary, the Bundesbank held a high-level symposium in Frankfurt am Main on the future of central banking. Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann highlighted how modern central banking has been shaped by crises, adding that this also applies to the Bundesbank's mandate, which was influenced by the fact that the German population had lost their savings twice in the first half of the 20th century.

The Bundesbank's TARGET2 balance has again increased considerably since the beginning of 2015 and currently amounts to around €950 billion. This development is first and foremost linked to the extensive asset purchases by the Eurosystem central banks

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €19.6 billion in September 2021, up €4.2 billion on the previous month’s level.

Am 5. April 2023 erließ der EZB-Rat die Leitlinie EZB/2023/8 zur Änderung der Leitlinie EZB/2019/7 über Inlandsgeschäfte zur Verwaltung von Aktiva und Passiva durch die nationalen Zentralbanken sowie den Beschluss EZB/2023/9 zur Änderung des Beschlusses EZB/2019/31 über die Verzinsung von Überschussreserven und bestimmten Einlagen.

Consumer prices in Germany were up sharply at the start of the year, partly because households’ consumption behaviour has changed in certain areas during the coronavirus pandemic, as shown by an analysis in the current issue of the Monthly Report.