The National Cash Forum, initiated by the Deutsche Bundesbank in February 2024, has launched a new website to serve as a neutral source of information on all aspects of cash.

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.

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. 

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €24.0 billion in December 2024, up €2.1 billion on the previous month’s level. The surplus in the goods account decreased sharply, but the surplus in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income, increased more strongly.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, German households’ nominal financial assets grew by €136 billion, totalling €9,050 billion as at the end of the year. This is now the fifth increase in succession, continuing the growth streak that has been ongoing since the end of 2023. Households increased their claims by €79 billion and generated valuation gains of €57 billion.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €24.1 billion in November 2024, up €10.4 billion on the previous month’s level. This was caused by a larger surplus in the goods account and especially by the shift to a surplus in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income.

Germany’s current account posted a surplus of €18.7 billion in July 2023, down €9.7 billion on the previous month’s level. This decrease was due to a narrowing of the surplus in the goods account and a depletion of that in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income.