The current issue of the Bundesbank’s Monthly Report reports that German economic output was lower in the fourth quarter of 2022 than in the previous quarter. According to the Federal Statistical Office’s flash estimate, real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased by 0.2% on the quarter after seasonal adjustment. The Bundesbank’s experts are expecting yet another fall in economic output in the first quarter of 2023. The inflation rate is expected to continue to decline in the coming months, but underlying price pressure will remain high.

2022 saw Germany’s current account surplus drop by €116 billion to €162 billion. In relation to nominal gross domestic product (GDP), it fell by 3½ percentage points to 4¼%. This represents the largest decline since German reunification and the lowest figure since 2003. 

Professor Joachim Wuermeling has notified the Executive Board that he wishes to take up a new position in 2024 and will therefore be leaving the Bundesbank at the end of the year, some months before the end of his term of office. Against this background, and alongside further organisational adjustments, the Executive Board of the Bundesbank has adopted a reallocation of responsibilities that will come into effect on 1 April 2023.

The monetary policy turnaround shaped the Bundesbank’s balance sheet last year. The profit and loss account for 2022 reported a distributable profit of zero. This result was achieved by tapping €1 billion worth of risk provisions. As in the previous years, no profit was transferred to the Federal budget. “The Bundesbank sustained exceptional financial burdens in 2022,” Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said at the joint press conference with Executive Board member Joachim Wuermeling.