In April 2013, a survey of foreign exchange and derivatives market activity was carried out by central banks in 53 countries, including all the major financial centres.In consultation with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), these surveys have been carried out every three years since 1989.

At the end of the first quarter of 2013, the financial assets of households rose by €52 billion, or 1.1%, on the previous quarter to just under €4,992 billion. The acquisition of financial assets was comparable to the first quarters of the previous years, with only a small percentage of this increase, around €5 billion, attributable to capital market gains.

On the whole, the credit standards of German credit institutions for lending to non-financial corporations remained unchanged in the second quarter of 2013. This was revealed by the latest Bank Lending Survey conducted by the Deutsche Bundesbank.

In the first half of 2013 the Bundesbank detected around 19,500 counterfeit euro banknotes. This means that the number of counterfeits was down by 13.6 per cent compared with the second half of 2012.

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.

From today, the Deutsche Bundesbank will be issuing €5 banknotes of the second euro banknote series, thus bringing the first denomination of the new “Europa” series into circulation in Germany.

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

The latest Bank Lending Survey revealed that the standards applied by banks when lending to non-financial corporations were relaxed to a moderate extent in the first quarter of 2013, but that the margins for these loans widened overall. Riskier loans were affected by this increase to a greater extent than loans to enterprises with good credit ratings.

According to provisional calculations, general government debt in Germany as defined in the Maastricht Treaty amounted to approximately €2.166 trillion at the end of 2012.The debt ratio, ie the ratio of debt to GDP, increased by 1.5 percentage points compared to 2011, amounting to 81.9%.