Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €16.5 billion in August 2020, down €4.6 billion from the previous month’s level.

According to Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann central banks could do more to curb global warming. In an op-ed for the “Financial Times” he pointed out a number of possible courses of action. However, he added, central banks should stay focused on their primary objective, price stability. “When it comes to saving the planet, central banks do not have a magic wand”, he wrote.

“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 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.