The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was conceived at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, and currently has 190 member countries. Germany joined the Fund in 1952. The overarching aim of the IMF is to promote economic policy cooperation and stability in the international monetary system. Its mandate also covers financial stability issues that have monetary implications.

on the topic of Interest rates on deposits and loans

To collateralise all credit operations, the Eurosystem requires counterparties to provide adequate eligible assets in accordance with Article 18.1 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). Assets need to fulfil a number of criteria to be accepted as eligible collateral by the Eurosystem. 

Pursuant to ESA 2010, the fiscal policy activities of the EU institutions at a national level are not included in the government sector account.

The output index for the production sector is calculated monthly by the Federal Statistical Office and includes the sectors mining and quarrying, manufacturing, energy and construction.

In early 2000, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) initiated the Financial Soundness Indicators (FSI) project in response to the financial market crises of the late 1990s.

The continual observation of price stability is based on analyses of price statistics. Particular attention is usually paid to the German Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) and the national Consumer Price Index (CPI), which are both published by the Federal Statistical Office and often used throughout the EU and as inflation measures.

Orders received is a leading indicator for cyclical developments. The figures are compiled monthly by the Federal Statistical Office and published both as a value index and as a volume index for the manufacturing and construction sectors respectively. The number of permits granted for structural engineering work also indicates the level of economic movement to be expected in that sector.

The publication of the following indicators is prescribed in the SDDS Plus data category "Central Bank survey".

The continual observation of price stability is based on analyses of price statistics. Particular attention is usually paid to the German Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) and the national Consumer Price Index (CPI), which are both published by the Federal Statistical Office and often used throughout the EU and as inflation measures.

Monthly turnover data are available for industry and the retail trade sector. Quarterly time series are published for the services sector. The results for the retail trade are also included in the calculation of private consumption.

In 2015 the Riksbank took the initiative to hold an annual conference on macroprudential policy.

Operating and support hours of the Collateralmanagement Access Portal (CAP)

on the topic of balance of payments

Since December 2009, the statistics on financial vehicle corporations (FVCs) have included a quarterly survey, carried out at the end of the quarter, of the assets and liabilities of all FVCs in Germany.

On 13 March 2024, the ECB Governing Council decided on changes to the operational framework for implementing monetary policy. These changes will affect how central bank liquidity will be provided as excess liquidity in the banking system, while remaining significant over the coming years, gradually declines.

The main refinancing operations, with a weekly frequency and a maturity of one week, are the most important monetary policy instrument used by the Eurosystem for money market management.

The European sovereign debt crisis was characterised by the fact that some euro area countries, owing to their high levels of debt – caused in part by efforts to counter the consequences of the global financial crisis – experienced difficulties refinancing their debt and, in some cases, lost access to capital market funding. In order to protect monetary policy transmission and safeguard sufficient liquidity provision for the financial system, the ECB Governing Council adopted various non-standard measures during the course of the crisis that went beyond the scope of the usual operational framework at that time.

The Eurosystem’s monetary policy measures in the years following the European sovereign debt crisis were shaped, in particular, by a prolonged period in which inflation rates were well below the Eurosystem’s target. Against this backdrop, the ECB Governing Council decided, starting in 2014, to conduct various targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTROs) and launch temporary monetary policy purchase programmes in addition to the existing operational framework.

The Eurosystem’s monetary policy from 2020 was shaped by the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in inflation from 2021. This ultimately led to a series of Eurosystem policy rate hikes totalling 450 basis points (from July 2022 to September 2023).

With the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2007 and the turmoil it brought about in the international banking system, trust between commercial banks increasingly dwindled, which significantly hampered the redistribution of liquidity via the interbank market that is necessary for a functioning corridor system. Banks in the euro area began to hoard liquidity or not lend it indiscriminately to banks that were in need of liquidity, meaning that the short-term money market no longer facilitated the smooth distribution of liquidity. The volatility of short-term interest rates went up significantly. As a result, the ECB Governing Council adopted a series of non-standard monetary policy measures, thereby changing the way in which the operational framework is used to implement monetary policy.