Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €29.7 billion in January 2024, down €1.9 billion on the previous month’s level. The goods account surplus increased significantly, but this was outweighed by a stronger decline in the surplus in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income.

In April 2024, Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €25.9 billion, down €1.9 billion on the previous month’s level. This was due to a decrease in the goods account surplus.

The National Cash Forum has been established on the initiative of the Bundesbank, the being, as Bundesbank Executive Board member Burkhard Balz put it, to preserve cash as an efficient and widely used means of payment in a changing payment landscape. The forum will facilitate close dialogue between the associations of the banking industry, retail trade, consumer protection, the CIT industry, vending machine operators and the Bundesbank. The industry is set to meet here at least once a year. 

The German banks responding to the Bank Lending Survey (BLS) barely tightened their credit standards for loans to enterprises any further in the second quarter of 2024. They slightly tightened their credit standards for loans to households for house purchase and for consumer credit and other lending to households. Overall, the adjustments were somewhat less than had been planned in the previous quarter.