Household wealth in Germany increased between 2017 and 2021. For example, households’ average net wealth went up by €83,600 to €316,500 between those two years. In particular, households with low wealth saw strong growth relative to their existing wealth. This is the finding of a Bundesbank study regularly examining household wealth and finances (the Panel on Household Finances, or PHF). 

“The German economy beat last month’s expectations in the first quarter of 2023,” according to the Bundesbank’s latest Monthly Report. While persistently high inflation weighed on private consumption, industry saw a stronger recovery than expected. The Bundesbank is anticipating positive employment developments and a slight decline in the inflation rate in the coming months.

From 3 May to 10 September 2023, the Historical Museum Frankfurt, in cooperation with the Bundesbank’s Money Museum, will host the exhibition “Inflation 1923. War, Money, Trauma”. The exhibition explores the diverse consequences of the great devaluation in 1923. Through the media of artistic and literary testimonies, the exhibition showcases people’s experience with hyperinflation, taking Frankfurt as an example.

Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel believes that the ECB should continue to raise interest rates given high levels of inflation. “From a monetary policy perspective, there is still a way to go here,” he said at a joint press conference with Germany’s Finance Minister Christian Lindner at the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington DC. However, he would not commit to any order of magnitude, Mr Nagel went on.

The Directorate General Banking and Financial Supervision has been reorganised with effect from 3 April 2023.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the European Central Bank, the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Banque de France have opened the BIS Innovation Hub Eurosystem Centre next week in Frankfurt am Main and Paris. The ceremony was streamed live on Tuesday, 28 March 2023. Speakers included Agustín Carstens, General Manager of the BIS; Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB; François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Banque de France; and Joachim Nagel, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank. 

Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance and Federal Ministry of Education and Research have launched an initiative aimed at strengthening financial education. Bundesbank Executive Board member Burkhard Balz, attending the kick-off event on 23 March in Berlin, expressed his strong support for this initiative.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel called for a further increase in euro area interest rates, saying, “if we are to tame this stubborn inflation, we will have to be even more stubborn”. Our fight against inflation isn’t over yet, he noted, while stressing that interest rates are approaching restrictive territory. 

The Bundesbank expects economic output in Germany to decline again in the first quarter of 2023. Although output in industry and construction expanded significantly again in January, exports of goods recovered only partially in price-adjusted terms. In addition, consumer-related sectors continue to suffer from the persistently high level of inflation. Core inflation once again matched the all-time high of December 2022. Despite the current weak economy, the outlook for the labour market remains positive.

Is digitalisation increasing aggregate labour productivity? And if so, to what extent? The Bundesbank’s experts explore these questions in the current issue of the Monthly Report by studying developments in the four largest euro area countries and the United States between 1997 and 2018. They find that productivity effects emanating from the digital sectors are very strong, with input-output linkages between economic sectors playing an important role.