Estimates by the Bundesbank suggest that banknotes worth around €268 billion were in circulation in Germany in 2018. Of that amount, roughly 20% was used directly for transactions. The other, far larger share – somewhere in the region of €200 billion – was being hoarded, i.e. stored for an extended period of time by households and firms.

The December 2020 edition of the Monthly Report outlines Germany’s economic outlook for 2021 to 2023 and explores the informative value of national fiscal indicators in the case of debt at the European level. In addition, it describes the national implementation of the European banking package in Germany through the Risk Reduction Act (Risikoreduzierungsgesetz – RiG) and analyses the profitability and financing of German enterprises in 2019.