Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States together form the G7, an informal gathering of the most important industrial economies. The heads of state or government as well as the finance ministers and central bank governors of the G7 nations meet regularly to exchange views and opinions and to coordinate joint policy positions.

An improved net result of financial operations, write-downs and risk provisioning caused a slight increase in the Bundesbank's profit in 2015. At the same time, the Bundesbank's net interest income was lower than at any time since monetary union was launched.

Le président de la Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann, a lancé un appel aux États membres de la zone euro les invitant à consolider leurs budgets en 2016. Il a estimé que compte tenu des faibles taux d’intérêt, de nombreux États croient actuellement pouvoir continuer à financer un endettement toujours plus important. "Le véritable test de résistance pour les budgets publics interviendra lorsque les taux d'intérêt repartiront à la hausse", écrit M. Weidmann dans une contribution au journal Wirtschaftswoche.

In the past, financial system crises have often been triggered or accompanied by a protracted marked rise and then abrupt sharp fall in property prices. At the sixteenth Bundesbank Spring Conference, leading global economists, central bank representatives and delegates from international organisations presented and discussed their latest findings on this topic.

In a speech held in Frankfurt, Raghuram Rajan, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, criticised the ultra-accommodative monetary policy across the world, claiming that it would not sustainably achieve higher growth and that it could also have tremendous consequences for financial stability. "The sooner we get out, the better," he said.