Germany's economy is on a sound upward path, as indicated by the Deutsche Bundesbank's semi-annual economic projection. Domestic demand is the chief driver of the current upswing.

A study has shown that private individuals carry €103 in cash, of which around €5.90 is in coins. This is a total of €15 less than in 2008.

2011 saw a continuation of the trend towards building up multinational groups by way of holding companies.

The foreign direct investment stocks reached a new peak at year-end 2017. In 2017, Germany’s primary outward foreign direct investment (FDI) grew considerably by €61 billion and reached a new peak of €1,167 billion at the end of that year. In the opposite direction, inward FDI in Germany rose by €32 billion, likewise achieving its highest ever recorded value (€741 billion).

The emerging market economies have grown significantly over the past 20 years, increasingly becoming the engine fuelling global growth. Recently, however, economic momentum in China, Russia and other countries has tailed off considerably. In the July Monthly Report, the Bundesbank's economists look into the drivers behind this development.

Bundesbank Executive Board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele considers Bitcoin a risky and highly speculative form of investment. "It’s also possible for Bitcoin holdings to be completely wiped out," he writes in an op-ed for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. In addition, he draws attention to Bitcoin’s high level of energy consumption, citing Bundesbank estimates that settling a Bitcoin transaction uses roughly 460,000 times as much electricity as a normal transfer.