The finance ministers and central bank governors of the seven leading western industrial countries (G7) met in Stresa, Italy, to exchange views on current issues. Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel and Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner held a joint press conference at which the main focus was on the development of the global economy and trade, but other topics on the agenda were current affairs and interest rate developments.

Helmut Schlesinger was president of Germany’s central bank from 1991 to 1993 and is considered a guardian of the culture of stability. This was a culture he established not just within the Bundesbank, but throughout society, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel writes in an op-ed article in the business daily “Börsen-Zeitung”.

In April 2024, Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €25.9 billion, down €1.9 billion on the previous month’s level. This was due to a decrease in the goods account surplus.

Domestic enterprises, banks, public authorities and individuals are required to report cross-border equity investments on an annual basis wherever their share of capital or voting rights is 10% or higher and the investment enterprise’s total assets are more than €3 million (or the equivalent thereof if its balance sheet is denominated in another currency).

Trade repositories (TRs) are a relatively new category of financial market infrastructure. They were explicitly added to the oversight tasks of central banks by the CPSS/IOSCO Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures (PFMIs) finalised in April 2012.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann says that non-standard monetary policy measures can have a variety of effects on income and wealth distribution. “Much like conventional interest rate policy, the non-standard measures are more likely to have reduced income inequality,” he said in a speech in Hamburg.