The Bundesbank has published its inaugural environmental report, which outlines its environmental guideline and discloses its greenhouse gas emissions. "The Bundesbank aims to reduce its emissions by 25% by 2025," according to Bundesbank Executive Board member Johannes Beermann.

Bundesbankpräsident Jens Weidmann hat an die Euro-Staaten appelliert, im Jahr 2016 ihre Haushalte zu konsolidieren. Angesichts niedriger Zinsen würden derzeit viele Staaten glauben, auch einen weiter wachsenden Schuldenberg finanzieren zu können. "Der wahre Belastungstest für die öffentlichen Haushalte wird kommen, wenn die Zinsen wieder steigen".

The United States Congress has ratified the quota and governance reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Bundesbank welcomes this move. "The way is now free for implementing the agreed reforms. This is good news," noted Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann in his capacity as Governor of the Fund for Germany. The quota and governance reform was adopted back in 2010, with Germany ratifying the reform package in 2012.

Gemäß der Berichtspflichten der ESZB-Satzung wird von der Europäischen Zentralbank (EZB) wöchentlich ein konsolidierter Ausweis des Eurosystems veröffentlicht. Dieser soll den Nutzern als Informationsquelle im Zusammenhang mit den geldpolitischen Operationen, den Devisengeschäften und der Investitionstätigkeit dienen. Zudem sind darin Angaben über die Liquiditätsströme enthalten.

The countercyclical capital buffer is designed to make banks more resilient and thus combat the threat of financial crises. A Bundesbank paper profiles this new instrument and explains how it makes banks provide for lean years during years of plenty.  

Bundesbank Executive Board member Joachim Nagel has spoken out in favour of disclosing the contents of the Agreement on Net Financial Assets (Anfa). The agreement sets balance-sheet ceilings for financial non-monetary policy operations on the part of Eurosystem national central banks. In a two-part interview with the German business daily Börsen Zeitung, Dr Nagel commented that monetary financing of the public sector was to be prevented at all costs.

The new €20 banknote provides for even greater security in cash payments. Its new security feature - a window in the hologram stripe - would be very difficult to forge, says Bundesbank Executive Board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele. The new banknote was launched on the 25th of November.

"Without data, policies cannot move forward," said Min Zhu of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the 3rd IMF Statistics Forum in Frankfurt. Around 150 data producers, policy makers and academics discussed the future of statistics at the high-level, two-day conference, which was hosted by the Bundesbank.