The financial assets of households increased by €23 billion, or 0.5% on the quarter, to €5,027 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2013.

The financial accounts data for Germany announced in this press release are published for the first time pursuant to the provisions of the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010). This methodological framework replaced the previous ESA 1995 on 1 September 2014, and since then has constituted the binding basis for all relevant statistics in the European Union.

The German current account recorded a surplus of €30.2 billion in March 2021, up €11.5 billion on the previous month’s level. This was due to a considerable increase in the surplus on invisible current transactions, which comprise not only services but also primary and secondary income, as well as that in the goods account.

At the end of the first quarter of 2013, the financial assets of households rose by €52 billion, or 1.1%, on the previous quarter to just under €4,992 billion. The acquisition of financial assets was comparable to the first quarters of the previous years, with only a small percentage of this increase, around €5 billion, attributable to capital market gains.

Times of strong growth and low interest rates have seen vulnerabilities build up in the German financial system. In addition, the probability of an economic downturn has increased. “Now is the time to build up sufficient capital and strengthen the financial system’s defences,” said Bundesbank Vice-President Claudia Buch at the press conference on the publication of the new Financial Stability Review.