“The coronavirus pandemic and the measures taken to contain it have plunged the German economy into a severe recession,” according to the Bundesbank’s latest Monthly Report. At present, it is all but impossible to tell with any degree of certainty how large the decline in overall economic activity will eventually be, the Monthly Report states

Sabine Mauderer, Bundesbank Executive Board member and responsible for Markets and Human Resources since the beginning of September, and Yves Mersch, ECB Executive Board member, spoke at the banking and corporate evening at the Regional Office in Munich.

Economic activity in Germany has slowed down significantly. Speaking on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank spring meeting in Washington, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann noted that economic growth in 2019 will lag far behind potential output growth of 1.5%.

Despite significant price losses on the capital markets, the financial assets of households in Germany rose in 2011 to a total of €4,715 billion at year-end. At the same time, households’ debt increased slightly to around €1,550 billion. Non-financial corporations’ acquisition of financial assets grew by roughly €209 billion and thus surpassed the increase in their external financing, which amounted to just under €190 billion.