Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has called on the euro-area countries to embrace fiscal prudence, arguing in a speech in Hamburg that the tighter the fiscal space, the more central banks will come under political pressure to stabilise economic activity in the short run – even if that does mean compromising on price stability.

The productivity of many firms evolves over time. This impacts on the optimal inflation rate – the rate of price increase with the least distortionary effect on relative goods prices. Our estimates for the United States suggest that, due to firm-level productivity changes, the optimal inflation rate has dropped from somewhat over 2% in the mid-1980s to a current level of roughly 1%.

The August 2017 Monthly Report comments on the economic situation in Germany in summer 2017.

The Bundesbank has completed the transfer of its gold reserves from New York and Paris to Frankfurt am Main three years ahead of schedule. This means that the objective of its gold storage plan, which was set out in 2013, has been achieved well in advance. More than half of Germany's gold reserves are now located in Germany.

Die Wirksamkeit der Geldpolitik hängt entscheidend von der fristgerechten und vertraulichen Durchführung der zu diesem Zweck abgeschlossenen Geschäfte ab. Art. 1 Abs. 6 MiFIR sieht daher ausdrücklich eine Ausnahme von der Pflicht zur Veröffentlichung von Handelsdaten für alle Geschäfte mit Nichteigenkapitalinstrumenten vor, an denen ein Mitglied des Europäischen Systems der Zentralbanken (ESZB) in Ausübung seiner gesetzlichen Befugnisse zur Durchführung der Geldpolitik beteiligt ist.

Weitere Informationen entnehmen Sie bitte unserem Rundschreiben Nr. 53/2017.