Speaking at a symposium, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said an official farewell to Claudia Buch and Joachim Wuermeling, both of whom had left the Executive Board on 31 December 2023. Claudia Buch had been Vice-President of the Bundesbank since 2014 and Joachim Wuermeling had been an Executive Board member since 2016. 

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €22.6 billion in September 2024, up €5.5 billion on the previous month’s level. This was caused by the larger surplus in the goods account and especially by the shift to a surplus in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income.

According to the current issue of the Bundesbank’s Monthly Report, real gross domestic product (GDP) is likely to have contracted again somewhat in the third quarter of 2024. Output in the industrial sector and in construction is expected to have declined markedly. Despite favourable conditions, private consumption probably likewise provided only little impetus.

The National Cash Forum has been established on the initiative of the Bundesbank, the being, as Bundesbank Executive Board member Burkhard Balz put it, to preserve cash as an efficient and widely used means of payment in a changing payment landscape. The forum will facilitate close dialogue between the associations of the banking industry, retail trade, consumer protection, the CIT industry, vending machine operators and the Bundesbank. The industry is set to meet here at least once a year. 

We could be on the verge of a global economic turning point, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said in an interview with the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”. In this situation, we need more Europe, not less. Trump’s proposed trade tariffs could prove very painful for Germany. Should they be implemented, he said, we might even see negative economic growth next year. Mr Nagel considers European monetary policy to be on the right track.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €29.7 billion in January 2024, down €1.9 billion on the previous month’s level. The goods account surplus increased significantly, but this was outweighed by a stronger decline in the surplus in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income.