The German current account recorded a surplus of €18.8 billion in March 2022, down €2.3 billion on the previous month’s level.

Deutsche Bundesbank together with Deutsche Börse Group and Germany’s Finance Agency have developed and successfully tested a settlement interface for electronic securities. Securities settlement using distributed ledger technology (DLT) is performed with the aid of a trigger solution in TARGET2.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has warned against government intervention in the market economy becoming the norm after the coronavirus pandemic,  although it was important for the government to intervene strongly in the crisis. “But this must not become a normal state of affairs. I do not believe that governments know best when it comes to running a business,” he said in an interview with the “Augsburger Allgemeine” newspaper.

Introducing central bank digital currency (CBDC) is not an end in itself, believes Jens Weidmann. Rather, a digital euro needs to provide a clear value added to the citizens of the euro area. “CBDCs should only be issued if the perceived benefits outweigh any potential drawbacks or risks,” the Bundesbank President said in a speech at a virtual conference.