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.

“The German economy is overcoming the coronavirus crisis and is poised for the start of a strong upswing,” writes the Bundesbank in its semi-annual projection. The Bundesbank’s economists expect that gross domestic product will reattain its pre-crisis level as early as this summer. It is likely that the rate of inflation will rise strongly to 2.6% in 2021.

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.

Selected results of the financial accounts by sector

The German banks responding to the Bank Lending Survey (BLS) once again tightened their credit standards for loans to enterprises somewhat in the first quarter of 2021. Standards remained unchanged for loans to households for house purchase, and they were eased marginally for consumer credit and other lending to households.

In the Bundesbank’s estimation, the German economy is likely to have stagnated in the final quarter of 2019. The two-speed development of the economy continued, according to the latest Monthly Report.