The German current account recorded a surplus of €22.6 billion in February 2023, up €5.6 billion on the previous month’s level. 

General government debt in Germany as defined by the Maastricht Treaty increased by €71 billion in 2022 to €2.57 trillion. Debt rose at a slower rate than in previous years, with lower needs from the coronavirus pandemic as it came to an end being counteracted by new burdens arising from the energy crisis. Central government debt grew by €97 billion, but state government debt fell markedly. The debt ratio, meaning the ratio of debt to nominal gross domestic product, fell by 2.9 percentage points to 66.4%.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €16.2 billion in January 2023, down €9.4 billion on the previous month’s level. 

Professor Joachim Wuermeling has notified the Executive Board that he wishes to take up a new position in 2024 and will therefore be leaving the Bundesbank at the end of the year, some months before the end of his term of office. Against this background, and alongside further organisational adjustments, the Executive Board of the Bundesbank has adopted a reallocation of responsibilities that will come into effect on 1 April 2023.

The monetary policy turnaround shaped the Bundesbank’s balance sheet last year. The profit and loss account for 2022 reported a distributable profit of zero. This result was achieved by tapping €1 billion worth of risk provisions. As in the previous years, no profit was transferred to the Federal budget. “The Bundesbank sustained exceptional financial burdens in 2022,” Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel explained with regard to the annual accounts.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €24.3 billion in December 2022, up €6.9 billion on the previous month’s level. While the surplus in the goods account actually decreased, the surplus in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income, experienced a considerably stronger increase.

The German banks tightened their credit standards for loans to enterprises, loans to households for house purchase as well as consumer credit and other lending in the fourth quarter of 2022. Credit terms and conditions were also made more restrictive in all three loan categories.

In 2022, the Bundesbank registered approximately 44,100 counterfeit euro banknotes with a nominal value of €2.7 million in German payments. The number of counterfeits was thus up by 5.2% on the year.

In the third quarter of 2022, households’ financial assets shrank for the third time in a row owing to persistent valuation losses. A phase of negative growth in financial assets lasting longer than this was last seen during the global financial crisis.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €16.9 billion in November 2022, up €11.2 billion on the previous month’s level. This was caused by the larger surplus in the goods account and the shift to a surplus in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income.

The Deutsche Bundesbank calculates the basic rate of interest pursuant to the German Civil Code and publishes its current level in the Federal Gazette.

Despite the energy crisis, the Deutsche Bundesbank expects that the German economy will not experience a severe downturn in the winter. “While economic output is likely to contract initially, we expect that the economy will gradually recover from the second half of 2023 onwards,” said Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel upon the release of its latest projections. However, the energy crisis will boost inflation in Germany. “Inflation is high and will decline only gradually,” Nagel explained.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €5.9 billion in October 2022, almost half of the previous month’s result.

The macro-financial environment has deteriorated substantially over the course of 2022. It has been shaped by subdued growth prospects, high inflation as well as rising interest rates and risk premia.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €14.8 billion in September 2022 and was thus up again significantly on the narrow result of €0.9 billion in the previous month.

The German trading center is experiencing strong growth in foreign exchange trading and OTC interest rate derivatives. These findings were revealed by the survey of foreign exchange and derivatives market activity conducted in April 2022 and covering all major global financial centres. The survey was carried out by central banks in 52 countries in consultation with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

German banks adopted stricter credit standards for loans to enterprises in the third quarter of 2022.  For the second time in a row, credit standards for loans to households for house purchase have been made more restrictive than at any point in time since the introduction of the BLS. Credit standards for consumer credit and other lending were also made considerably more restrictive.

Households’ financial assets fell by €98 billion in the second quarter of 2022 and thus for the second time in succession. At the end of the quarter they stood at €7,496 billion.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of only €0.6 billion in August 2022, down €4.8 billion on the previous month’s level. This was due to a decrease in the goods account surplus. The deficit on invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income, changed only slightly.