At the end of the fourth quarter of 2018, the financial assets of households in Germany stood at €6,016 billion. Compared with the third quarter of 2018, this represents a decrease of just over €28 billion.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was conceived at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, and currently has 190 member countries. Germany joined the Fund in 1952. The overarching aim of the IMF is to promote economic policy cooperation and stability in the international monetary system. Its mandate also covers financial stability issues that have monetary implications.

MiFID data are generated by a certain set of financial market participants which are obliged to report all trades in financial instruments that they conduct to the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).

In April 2022, Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €7.4 billion, down €11.3 billion on the previous month’s level. This was chiefly due to a decrease in the goods account surplus, but was also attributable to a somewhat lower surplus in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income.

During the second quarter of 2020, German households’ financial assets grew by €253 billion, or 4.0%, to €6,630 billion at the end of June.