On 13 and 14 May, the Bundesbank invited motivated young people to its fourth Euro20+ event, held in Frankfurt am Main, where they discussed key economic and societal issues. The highlight of the event was the two town hall meetings with Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel and Banco de España Governor Pablo Hernández de Cos.

Our historical archives contain sources which give an exact account of gold swap transactions with the central bank of the United States – the Fed. The sources show how the Bundesbank’s quality control procedures and its stringent requirements regarding the composition of its gold made an accurate settlement of accounts possible.

The so-called Blessing letter, dated 30 March 1967, forms part of the correspondence between the President of the Deutsche Bundesbank at the time, Karl Blessing, and the then Chairman of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System, William Martin. Blessing addresses US concerns that the Bundesbank might convert US dollars into gold on a massive scale.

Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel has once again advocated making a timely start on normalising policy rates in the euro area. The risk of acting too late is increasing notably, he said at a conference in Eltville am Rhein. “As inflation in the euro area continues to run high, we need to act,” Mr Nagel urged. “And if both the incoming data and our new projection confirm this view in June, I will advocate a first step [towards] normalising ECB (European Central Bank) interest rates in July.”

Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel has spoken out in favour of not waiting too much longer to proceed with the next steps towards a normalisation of monetary policy. “The era of negative interest rates should come to an end soon,” stated Mr Nagel, speaking at an event organised by the German daily newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”.

Despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, euro area enterprises and households have not seen their debt situation deteriorate significantly. This is the conclusion reached by Bundesbank experts after examining developments in greater detail. “The expected normalisation of monetary policy will probably not unduly exacerbate the debt situation of non-financial corporations and households,” they also note in the current edition of the Bank’s Monthly Report

Economic activity in Germany may have more or less stagnated in the first quarter of 2022, the Bundesbank’s economists write in the current issue of the Monthly Report. They expect Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine to have had only a limited impact on Germany’s economy at first. Even so, the repercussions of the war are likely to significantly weaken the recovery, which had actually got off to a strong start. “Disruptions to foreign trade and supply chains, soaring energy prices and heightened uncertainty are weighing on enterprises and households,” the report states.

In the current issue of its Monthly Report, the Bundesbank uses scenario calculations to analyse the potential macroeconomic impact of a further escalation of the war against Ukraine. According to the experts, German real GDP this year could be down by as much as 2% compared with 2021. The inflation rate in Germany in 2022 could be 1½ percentage points higher than expected in the European Central Bank’s March projection.

The Bundesbank’s Executive Board has endorsed a second term of office for Bundesbank Vice-President Claudia Buch. The Executive Board notified the Federal Government that it had no objections to the Federal Cabinet’s nomination.

According to a flash estimate by the statistical office of the European Union, consumer prices in the euro area rose sharply on the year in March, with inflation as measured by the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices climbing to 7.5%, up from around 5.9% in February. Against this backdrop, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel once again spoke out in favour of normalising monetary policy in good time.