Following the entry into force of the revised Foreign Trade and Payments Regulation (AWV) on 1 September 2013, all external reports from enterprises, banks, public authorities and individuals must, as a general rule, be submitted in electronic format to the Bundesbank directly.

Economist in the Research Centre since December 2013

How is Germany’s international price competitiveness faring in light of high energy costs? The Bundesbank’s experts explore this question in the latest edition of the Monthly Report. To this end, they examined the impact of the higher energy costs, on the one hand, and the euro's depreciation against the US dollar, on the other. Their result was that, at least from a macroeconomic perspective, the depreciation of the currency is probably still offsetting high energy prices.

At midnight (CET) on 31 January 2020, the United Kingdom left the European Union. During a transition period, the United Kingdom will remain a member of the single European market and the customs union – after this period, however, Brexit could have far-reaching repercussions for the financial section and elsewhere.

The financial assets of households in Germany came to €6,950 billion at the end of 2020, increasing by €211 billion, or 3.1%, compared with the third quarter. With inflows of €74 billion in the fourth quarter, households again mainly built up cash and deposits, followed by claims on insurance corporations (€21 billion) and investment fund shares (€14 billion).

The economic recovery in Germany was brought to a standstill in the final quarter of 2020, the Bundesbank writes in its latest Monthly Report, stating that this was due to resurgent infection rates and the tightening of containment measures. Economic activity was consequently still almost 4% down on the pre-crisis level of the fourth quarter of 2019.