In the first half of 2016, the Bundesbank recorded approximately 45,700 counterfeit euro banknotes with a nominal value of €2.3 million. This means that the number of counterfeits rose slightly (by 1.7%) compared with the second half of 2015. Statistically, this equates to around 11 counterfeit banknotes per 10,000 inhabitants in Germany per year.

German banks adjusted their credit standards to varying degrees in the three surveyed business lines in the second quarter, as is revealed by the latest Bank Lending Survey (BLS) conducted among participating banks domiciled in Germany.

As at the end of 2016 Q1, households' financial assets amounted to €5,339 billion; this figure was €17 billion (or 0.3 %) higher than at the end of 2015.

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.

The German economy's underlying cyclical trend is fairly robust. According to the projection, this year's economic growth is being additionally boosted by purchasing power gains resulting from renewed falls in crude oil prices and from an expansionary fiscal policy.

In 2014, Germany's primary foreign direct investment stocks (outward FDI) and foreign direct investment stocks in Germany (inward FDI) rose only moderately on balance.

At today’s meeting, the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank gave Dr Joachim Nagel permission to depart from the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank prior to the end of his term with effect from 30 April 2016 and mandated a cooling-off period of six months. Dr Nagel’s areas of responsibility have been temporarily distributed among the other members of the Executive Board.

In the first quarter of 2016, German credit institutions adjusted their lending policies in the three surveyed lines of business in a variety of ways, as is revealed by the latest Bank Lending Survey (BLS) conducted among banks domiciled in Germany.

Since the beginning of the financial crisis in summer 2007, it has become a particularly challenging endeavour to analyse and forecast price developments. In Germany, as in most of the other large industrial countries, the inflation rate fell considerably during the Great Recession. Once the economy rebounded, inflation went up again rather quickly until the end of 2011; in 2012, it fell noticeably again and has remained surprisingly low amidst the positive developments in the labour market.

As at the end of December 2015, households' financial assets amounted to €5,318 billion; this figure was €105 billion (or 2.0%) higher than at the end of the third quarter.

Last year saw a continuation of the consolidation process in the German banking sector. Over the course of 2015, the overall number of credit institutions (in Germany) fell by 30 to 1,960 institutions. This corresponds to a 1.5% decline in 2015 compared with a drop of 1.9% in 2014.

According to provisional calculations, general government debt in Germany as defined in the Maastricht Treaty amounted to roughly €2.153 trillion at the end of 2015. The debt level was thus down by €24 billion on the year. The debt ratio, meaning the ratio of debt to nominal gross domestic product (GDP), fell by 3.5 percentage points to 71.2%. Nominal GDP growth contributed 2.7 percentage points to this decrease.

The Bundesbank is expanding its provision of data on the domestic investment fund industry. In addition to the long-standing publications on open-end investment funds, from now on data on the closed-end fund sector in Germany will also be published on a monthly basis.

The Bundesbank posted a profit of €3.2 billion for the 2015 financial year, up from €3.0 billion in 2014. This profit was transferred in full today to the Federal Government of Germany pursuant to section 27 number 2 of the Bundesbank Act (Bundesbankgesetz). Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann explained that the higher profit had been driven by an improved net result of financial operations, write-downs and risk provisioning, while net interest income had declined.