Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €21.3 billion in November 2020, down €1.6 billion from the previous month’s level. This was primarily attributable to a decrease in the goods account surplus. By contrast, the surplus in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income, expanded only slightly.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €26.3 billion in September 2020, up €9.7 billion from the previous month’s level.

A new weekly activity index (WAI) for the German economy has been developed at the Bundesbank to assess the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the economy from a near-time perspective. The Bundesbank is using this new indicator as an input in its short-term economic analysis.

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 financial assets of households rose by €64 billion, or 1.3%, on the previous quarter to €4,871 billion by the end of the third quarter.