“World events are keeping us on tenterhooks,” said Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel at a joint press conference with Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil on the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings, speaking about challenges facing the German economy and monetary policy. Nagel noted that the situation in the Middle East was, in many respects, a new test of hardship. 

Digitalisation, in particular, can increase productivity growth: Germany has work to do in this area, Executive Board member Fritzi Köhler-Geib said at a Bundesbank panel discussion. There, she spoke with Kristina Sinemus, Hesse’s Minister for Digitalisation and Innovation, and Claudia Nemat in her capacity as a tech entrepreneur, about boosting economic growth.

The digital euro is intended to complement cash and strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy in payments, the Bundesbank writes in its latest Monthly Report. Both online and offline payments would be possible with the digital euro. It would introduce the benefits of cash to the digital world without replacing cash.

Landmark session of the Bundesbank’s Executive Board at the Regional Office in Hesse: more than 23 years on from its constituent meeting, the Executive Board gathers for the thousandth time.