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.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of only €0.6 billion in August 2022, down €4.8 billion on the previous month’s level. This was due to a decrease in the goods account surplus. The deficit on invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income, changed only slightly.