Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has rebuffed demands by the International Monetary Fund for Germany to use fiscal policy space for growth-stimulating measures. A more accommodative German fiscal policy would not relieve the perceived drag on the global economy, he said at a press conference following the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings.

The German economy grew strongly in the past year. Driven by strong consumption growth, real gross domestic product (GDP), according to initial calculations by the Federal Statistical Office, was up by 1.7% from 2014.

Speaking in Frankfurt, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann underscored the importance of the G20 for international free trade and for progress in financial market regulation. In times like these, international cooperation is particularly important, he said, which is why the G20 is a "precious treasure".

The Deutsche Bundesbank posted its first-ever representative to South Africa at the country's German Embassy on 1 August 2016 with a view to deepening the bank's cooperation with the G20 emerging market economy.

The advantages or disadvantages firms experience as a result of their size, referred to in the economic literature as returns to scale, are of central importance in many economic models. Increasing returns to scale, whereby unit costs decrease as output volume increases, could explain productivity differences between Europe and the United States. We present fresh evidence on the returns to scale of European firms: most exhibit constant returns to scale, but a non-trivial share also show increasing returns to scale.