Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €16.9 billion in January 2021, down €8.9 billion from the previous month’s level. This was primarily due to the decline in the surplus for invisible current transactions – which comprise not only services but also primary and secondary income – but also to the narrower surplus in the goods account.

According to the current issue of the Monthly Report, in the final quarter of 2020 Germany's economic recovery was throttled by the higher infection rates and considerably stricter measures introduced again to contain the pandemic. However, in the experts’ assessment, the tighter restrictions have not led to any major setback; instead, real gross domestic product is likely to have more or less stagnated. The pandemic left a deep mark on German economic output in 2020 as a whole.