In the view of Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann, the ECB Governing Council’s forward guidance has contributed to lowering long-term interest rates and stimulating the euro area economy. However, at the 2019 European Banking Congress in Frankfurt, he also highlighted the risks and side effects of a highly expansionary monetary policy. ECB President Christine Lagarde called for increased public investment.

Risks to the stability of Germany’s financial system have continued to build over the course of 2019. “An unexpected economic downturn and abrupt rise in risk premia could hit Germany’s financial system hard,” explained Bundesbank Vice-President Claudia Buch at the press conference on the Financial Stability Review.

On 15 and 16 November, the Bundesbank invited 250 motivated young people to its second Euro20+ event. Under the slogan “Your Europe. Your Future”, the participants came together to discuss key economic and social issues concerning the future of Europe and the euro area.

The German economy saw only marginal growth in the third quarter of 2019. According to the Bundesbank’s latest Monthly Report, this persistently weak growth – gross domestic product (GDP) was up by 0.1% on the preceding quarter – was due to the ongoing sluggishness in the export-oriented industrial sector.

The European sustainable finance market is currently undergoing dynamic growth. Bundesbank experts believe that new transparency requirements, more information and clear definitions would give the market an additional boost and provide clarity for investors.

Executive Board member Burkhard Balz introduces the Bundesbank’s new representative in Tokyo. Uwe Nebgen takes over from Gudrun Moede, who headed the representative office in Japan for four years.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann and Executive Board member Sabine Mauderer say that central banks do have a part to play in forging a more sustainable financial system. But speaking at a conference in Frankfurt am Main, they both warned against overburdening monetary policymakers with climate policy objectives.

Demographic change in Germany is exerting increasing pressure on the German pension system. It would seem reasonable not to concentrate the resulting burdens on individual variables of the pension insurance system and also to adjust the retirement age in line with rising life expectancy, write the Bundesbank’s economists in the current Monthly Report.

Economic output in Germany could have contracted again slightly in the third quarter of 2019 compared with the second quarter. According to the Bundesbank’s latest Monthly Report, this is due to continued weakness in export-based industry. By contrast, the domestic economy continued to provide impetus.

Sustainability criteria are playing an increasingly important role in central banks’ portfolio management activities. This is one of the findings in a new investment guide published by the Network for Greening the Financial System, which Bundesbank Executive Board member Sabine Mauderer unveiled at the IMF Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.