The March 2020 Monthly Report analyses Germany’s balance of payments for 2019 and outlines the statistical data on households’ digital purchases that are contained in the balance of payments. It also includes an article on the challenges ahead posed by new reference interest rates using the implementation of the €STR in the euro area as an example.

The root causes of the Great Depression from 1929 to 1933 have been researched extensively. In this context, economic historians view central bank policy as having played a pivotal role, something which empirical modelling often fails to confirm. A new study likewise examines this influence empirically, but more explicitly takes into account the functioning of the international monetary system at the time – the international gold standard.