In its latest Monthly Report, the Bundesbank presents a detailed outlook for the German economy in 2015 and 2016, which was already published at the beginning of June. Additional focus lies on new instruments for measuring inflation expectations as well as on marketable financial instruments of banks and their role as collateral in the Eurosystem.

The potential consequences of inflation demonstrate how important it is to keep the value of a currency stable. The German Empire experienced hyperinflation and hidden inflation during and after both world wars. West Germany also saw comparatively high inflation rates in the 1970s.

Bundesbank Executive Board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele considers Bitcoin a risky and highly speculative form of investment. "It’s also possible for Bitcoin holdings to be completely wiped out," he writes in an op-ed for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. In addition, he draws attention to Bitcoin’s high level of energy consumption, citing Bundesbank estimates that settling a Bitcoin transaction uses roughly 460,000 times as much electricity as a normal transfer.

Germany's net external position stood at €1,476 billion at the end of 2015, and thus amounted to around 49 % of gross domestic product. The German net external asset position rose by €302 billion year-on-year.

The foreign direct investment stocks reached a new peak at year-end 2017. In 2017, Germany’s primary outward foreign direct investment (FDI) grew considerably by €61 billion and reached a new peak of €1,167 billion at the end of that year. In the opposite direction, inward FDI in Germany rose by €32 billion, likewise achieving its highest ever recorded value (€741 billion).