Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €21.4 billion in October 2023, down €6.6 billion on the previous month’s level.

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Der EZB-Rat hat heute beschlossen, die drei Leitzinssätze der EZB um jeweils 25 Basispunkte zu senken. Auf Grundlage unserer aktualisierten Beurteilung der Inflationsaussichten, der Dynamik der zugrunde liegenden Inflation und der Stärke der geldpolitischen Transmission ist es nun angemessen, den Grad der geldpolitischen Straffung zu reduzieren, nachdem die Leitzinsen neun Monate lang unverändert geblieben waren.

Germany’s current account posted a surplus of €18.7 billion in July 2023, down €9.7 billion on the previous month’s level. This decrease was due to a narrowing of the surplus in the goods account and a depletion of that in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income.

Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel, speaking at an event at Ruhr University Bochum, has called for further interest rate steps. Looking to future developments, he said: “In my view, it is by no means certain that interest rates will reach their peak as early as this summer.” He believes that the German economy is well placed to rise to the challenges ahead, even if it did contract over the past two quarters: “With regard to the remainder of the year, our economists are cautiously optimistic. Things should start to pick up again soon, then.”

Britta Weinmann is the Bundesbank’s new representative at the German embassy in Moscow. Ms Weinmann, who worked in banking supervision at the Bank’s Regional Office in Hesse prior to this, took over her new role on 1 August from Sven Redel

“Over time, the IMF has repeatedly managed to emerge stronger from crises. However, the external circumstances have rarely been more challenging than they are today,” Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner and Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel write in a guest article at Handelsblatt. “An IMF that focuses on its core mandate is best placed to strengthen the global economic and monetary system,” they explain in a contribution to mark the IMF’s 80th anniversary.