Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has defended the definition of price stability over the medium term as maintaining inflation rates of below, but close to, 2% in the euro area. He waded into the debate on setting a higher inflation target and warned of the impact that such a target could have on macroeconomic stability.

Germany’s outward foreign direct investment (FDI) stocks fell by €10 billion to €1,376 billion in 2020. This decline was mainly due to negative exchange rate effects, which led to a lower valuation of the stocks, a Bundesbank press release on these figures explains. The same period saw stocks of FDI in Germany increase by €39 billion to €845 billion.

Households’ financial assets grew by €159 billion to €7,325 billion in the second quarter of 2021. Alongside the transaction-related increase in financial assets (acquisition of financial assets), valuation gains on shares and investment fund shares played a significant role.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €11.8 billion in August 2021, down €6.1 billion on the previous month’s level. While the surplus in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income, saw a slight increase, the surplus in the goods account declined much more sharply.   

The German economy did not grow as quickly in the first quarter of 2018 as it did in the last three months of 2017. While the Bundesbank expects the underlying economic boom to continue in spite of the dip in growth, its economists concede in the May Monthly Report that "the underlying cyclical trend may well have decelerated unexpectedly quickly to a pace of growth that is now only slightly above potential growth."