The National Cash Forum has been established on the initiative of the Bundesbank, the being, as Bundesbank Executive Board member Burkhard Balz put it, to preserve cash as an efficient and widely used means of payment in a changing payment landscape. The forum will facilitate close dialogue between the associations of the banking industry, retail trade, consumer protection, the CIT industry, vending machine operators and the Bundesbank. The industry is set to meet here at least once a year. 

House prices in Germany fell significantly in 2023, according to the Bundesbank’s current Monthly Report. Residential properties were no longer affordable for many people owing to high inflation and increased interest rates. Demand for housing declined, increasingly shifting to the rental market, and the already high inflation in rents saw a significant further acceleration, the economists write. Overvaluations in the real estate market came down in 2023, but were not fully eliminated. The authors therefore believe that there is still a certain risk of price corrections.

The European Central Bank (ECB) and the Deutsche Bundesbank lended their support to a concert promoting peace organised by the Berlin State Opera together with its orchestra and choir under the musical direction of Daniel Barenboim. The concert, attended by  Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel and the entire Executive Board, took place in Berlin on Sunday, 6 March 2022. The ECB, the Bundesbank and other Eurosystem central banks are supporting the charity campaign with their own donations.

In his speech at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel highlighted the importance of the European single market. He said that it was truly a source of prosperity and could help to more effectively overcome future challenges. He called for greater efforts to deepen the integration of the single market, particularly in the areas of services, digitalisation, and the capital market. Furthermore, he stressed that credible fiscal rules were essential for monetary union.

Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel is expecting to see a further decline in the use of banknotes and coins. Even so, cash is deeply embedded in our everyday lives because of its unique characteristics, he said in a video message at the Bundesbank’s cash symposium in Berlin. Bundesbank Executive Board member Burkhard Balz stressed that cash still has a valid role to play even as payments become increasingly electronic.