Germany’s net international investment position stood at €2,073 billion at the end of 2018, thus amounting to around 62% of nominal gross domestic product. The German net external asset position rose by €281 billion year-on-year. 

The profitability of small and medium-sized banks and savings banks (less significant institutions, LSIs) in Germany is low. The prospect of a prolonged period of historically low interest rates makes it very likely that profitability will decrease further. This was shown by the recent survey carried out by the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) on the earnings situation and the resilience of German credit institutions in the low interest rate environment.

People in Germany are increasingly making payments without coins and notes, even for fairly small amounts. This is indicated by the Bundesbank’s statistics on the use of cashless payment instruments in 2018, which show that both the number and the total value of cashless transactions rose on the year.

In the first half of 2019, the Bundesbank recorded approximately 27,600 counterfeit euro banknotes with a nominal value of €1.6 million.

According to the latest Bank Lending Survey (BLS) in Germany, German banks have tightened their credit standards for loans to enterprises once again. For loans to households for house purchase, by contrast, institutions have eased their credit standards somewhat.

At the end of the first quarter of 2019, the financial assets of households in Germany stood at €6,170 billion.

The consolidation process in the German banking sector continued in 2018. However, the number of institutions did not fall as steeply as in the year before on account of new additions in the context of banks operating in Europe and on the international stage preparing for Brexit. Over the course of the year, the overall number of credit institutions fell by 40 to 1,783. This corresponds to a 2.2% decline compared with a drop of 3.4% in 2017. 

The Deutsche Bundesbank calculates the basic rate of interest pursuant to Section 247(1) of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch) and publishes its current level in the Federal Gazette (Bundesanzeiger) pursuant to Section 247(2) of the German Civil Code.

After a boom phase, the German economy is currently experiencing a marked cooldown. While the forces driving the domestic economy remain intact, the underlying cyclical trend is subdued. This is mainly attributable to the downturn in industry, where lacklustre exports are taking their toll. According to the Bundesbank’s latest projection, exports should, however, gradually start to pick up again from the second half of the year onwards.

In its meeting on 27 May 2019, the German Financial Stability Committee (G-FSC) decided to submit a recommendation to the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).

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).

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2018, the financial assets of households in Germany stood at €6,016 billion. Compared with the third quarter of 2018, this represents a decrease of just over €28 billion.

In the opening quarter of 2019, German banks tightened their credit standards marginally overall for loans to enterprises and slightly for loans to households for house purchase.

General government debt in Germany was down in 2018 by €52 billion, amounting to €2.063 trillion at the end of the year. The debt ratio, meaning the ratio of debt to nominal gross domestic product (GDP), fell from 64.5% to 60.9%.

The Executive Board notified the Federal Government that it had no objections to the Federal Cabinet’s nomination.

The Bundesbank posted a profit of €2.5 billion for the 2018 financial year. Following an allocation to the reserves, the Bundesbank transferred the remaining distributable profit of €2.4 billion in full to the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Cash is a quick and cheap means of payment in the German retail trade sector. On average, cash payments take just over 22 seconds and cost around 24 cent per transaction, according to a study on the costs of cash payments in the retail trade sector which the Deutsche Bundesbank carried out in cooperation with EHI Retail Institute.

In 2018, the Bundesbank registered approximately 58,000 counterfeit euro banknotes with a nominal value of €3.4 million, representing a 20% decrease year on year. Statistically, this equates to seven counterfeit banknotes per 10,000 inhabitants.

German banks made hardly any changes to their lending policies in the final quarter of 2018. Credit standards remained virtually constant in all three loan categories. At the same time, banks’ overall credit terms and conditions for loans to enterprises and for loans to households for house purchase were eased slightly.