At its meeting on 12 September 2019, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank decided to introduce a two-tier system for remunerating liquidity holdings in excess of minimum reserve requirements (excess reserves). 

The rate of inflation has a bearing on the relative price of individual products and therefore on demand for those products. Using new micro price data, we investigate how high the optimal inflation rate must be to prevent relative product demand from being distorted. Contradicting a common claim, we find that the optimal rate is not zero for a large part of the euro area, but is, in fact, clearly in positive territory.

The April 2022 Monthly Report explains the development of the debt situation in the euro area’s private non-financial sector since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and describes possibilities for the stability-oriented further development of the central government’s debt brake. Furthermore, the Monthly Report analyses the current developments in the demand for euro banknotes at the Bundesbank and contains a contribution on the possible macroeconomic consequences of the war in Ukraine: simulations of an intensified risk scenario.