Germany’s current account posted a surplus of €18.7 billion in July 2023, down €9.7 billion on the previous month’s level. This decrease was due to a narrowing of the surplus in the goods account and a depletion of that in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income.

Germany’s current account posted a surplus of €29.6 billion in June 2023, up €21.4 billion on the previous month’s level. This was because invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income, switched to a surplus, and there was a larger surplus on the goods account. 

In the first half of 2023, the Bundesbank withdrew approximately 26,700 counterfeit euro banknotes with a nominal value of just under €2.9 million from circulation in Germany. This was 10% more counterfeit banknotes than in the second half of 2022. The number of counterfeit €200 and €500 banknotes rose in particular. “The incidence of counterfeit banknotes is still low, however. Statistically speaking, there were six counterfeit banknotes per 10,000 inhabitants,” stated Burkhard Balz, the Bundesbank Executive Board member responsible for cash management.

In the first quarter of 2023, households’ financial assets grew by €146 billion, standing at €7,393 billion at the quarter’s end. Following the declines in the first three quarters of 2022, the financial assets appear to be following the upward trend of the fourth quarter of 2022.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €8.9 billion in May 2023, down €13.4 billion on the previous month’s level. This was because invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income, switched to a deficit. The surplus in the goods account remained virtually unchanged.

After adjustment for special factors in 2021, the consolidation process in the German banking sector, which has been going on for many years now, continued in 2022. Over the course of the year, the overall number of credit institutions fell by 61 (160 in the previous year) to 1,458.

The Deutsche Bundesbank calculates the basic rate of interest in pursuant to statutory requirements and publishes its current level in the Federal

In April 2023, Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €21.8 billion, down €8.7 billion on the previous month’s level. This was mainly attributable to a smaller goods account surplus. The surplus in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income, remained practically unchanged.