Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel, speaking at an event at Ruhr University Bochum, has called for further interest rate steps. Looking to future developments, he said: “In my view, it is by no means certain that interest rates will reach their peak as early as this summer.” He believes that the German economy is well placed to rise to the challenges ahead, even if it did contract over the past two quarters: “With regard to the remainder of the year, our economists are cautiously optimistic. Things should start to pick up again soon, then.”

Germany’s current account posted a surplus of € 23.2 billion in June 2024, up € 4.9 billion on the previous month’s level. The goods account surplus decreased, yet the deficit in invisible current transactions narrowed to a far greater extent.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €34.1 billion in March 2025, up €7.8 billion on the previous month’s level. This was attributable to larger surpluses in the goods account and especially in invisible current transactions, which comprises services as well as primary and secondary income. 

“This is one of the most important Spring Meetings,” Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said at a press breakfast with Germany’s acting Federal Finance Minister Jörg Kukies on the occasion of the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. “We know what we’ve got, and what we’ve had, with the IMF and the World Bank. Multilateralism is a core element of the global economic order.”

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €18.5 billion in May 2024, down €6.6 billion on the previous month’s level. The goods account surplus increased slightly, but the deficit in invisible current transactions widened to a far greater extent.

Economic output in Germany was up in the first quarter of 2025, the Bundesbank writes in its latest Monthly Report. Exports of goods, in particular, but probably also investment and private consumption increased. However, the Bundesbank economists expect the economy to more or less stagnate in the second quarter. This is due to the wide range of burdens that persist and the additional headwinds caused by the tightening of US tariff policy.