In the first quarter of 2025, firms’ assessments of the development of various metrics over the past 12 months were similar to their responses of the previous quarter. When asked how their short-term liquidity had changed over the past 12 months, 34% of firms responded that it had decreased and 21% said that it had increased (previous quarter: 33% and 20%, respectively). The spread between the two figures thus remained unchanged, at 13 percentage points.

In the first quarter of 2025, firms again considered the high level of regulation and government rules to be their greatest challenge in the short term. In March, this was considered to be the greatest challenge by 69% of firms, followed by the poor availability of workers, which was considered to be a serious problem by 55% of firms. In the first quarter of 2025, between 48% and 52% of firms believed high energy prices would be problematic for them going forward. Around 38% of firms said that competitive pressure would pose a challenge over the next six months. By contrast, around 32% believed this would not be a problem for them. 

Firms’ short-term inflation expectations rose slightly over the course of the first quarter of 2025, from an average of 3.0% in January to 3.1% in March. Average expectations for the inflation rate both three years ahead and five years ahead amounted to 3.3% in March.

In addition to the regularly recurring questions on enterprise metrics, expectations and access to loans, the Bundesbank frequently asks enterprises questions on various current issues. A selection of the results is presented here.

“Economic output in Germany is likely to have increased slightly in the first quarter of 2025, but could suffer a setback in the second quarter,” the Bundesbank writes in its latest Monthly Report. Construction and industrial output, for instance, were up recently. Retail sales also continued to grow in January and February. However, according to the Bundesbank’s economists, the outlook for the second quarter is gloomy, not least given the US administration’s tariff policy.

“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.”

In the first quarter of 2025, slightly more firms than in the fourth quarter of 2024 reported that they had conducted loan negotiations in the respective preceding quarter (Q1 2025: 15%, Q4 2024: 14%). 

Ergebnisse der Studie zur wirtschaftlichen Lage privater Haushalte

Das Projekt Meridian FX liefert den Nachweis, dass Infrastrukturen für Großbetragszahlungen, wie beispielsweise Echtzeit-Brutto-Abwicklungssysteme (RTGS), mithilfe neuer Technologien interagieren können, um Devisentransaktionen durchzuführen. In dem gemeinsamen Projekt der Bank für Internationalen Zahlungsausgleich (BIZ), der Bank of England, der Banque de France, der Banca d’Italia, der Deutschen Bundesbank und der Europäischen Zentralbank wurde untersucht, wie Devisentransaktionen synchronisiert abgewickelt werden können.