The April 2022 Monthly Report explains the development of the debt situation in the euro area’s private non-financial sector since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and describes possibilities for the stability-oriented further development of the central government’s debt brake. Furthermore, the Monthly Report analyses the current developments in the demand for euro banknotes at the Bundesbank and contains a contribution on the possible macroeconomic consequences of the war in Ukraine: simulations of an intensified risk scenario. 

In the United States and Europe, efforts are being made to limit banks' proprietary trading of securities. A key argument is that if banks invest in securities, they reduce the credit supply to the real economy. A new study uses microdata to examine the role of proprietary trading in times of crisis and its impact on lending activity.