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. 

Der Beirat besteht aus Vertreterinnen und Vertretern verschiedener Wirtschaftszweige.

The strategy sets out in a binding manner how the Bundesbank intends to fulfil its mandate and forms the basis for its new steering model.

At a speech in Luxembourg, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel touched on topics including the upcoming interest rate decision by the Governing Council of the ECB and the German economy, amongst other things. The German economy was also the topic of his recent interview with the Financial Times.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €16.6 billion in August 2023, down €2.2 billion on the previous month’s level. While the balance in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income, moved into positive territory, there was a sharper decline in the surplus in the goods account.