The coronavirus pandemic caused a historic decline in economic output in Germany, writes the Bundesbank in its most recent Monthly Report. Both the depth and speed of the crash were unprecedented. At present, however, the economy is on a recovery path and is expected to grow steeply in the third quarter.

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.

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.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €28.2 billion in December 2020, up €6.9 billion from the previous month’s level. Although the goods account surplus decreased, the surplus in invisible current transactions – comprising the services account as well as primary and secondary income – increased to a much greater degree.

Germany’s outward immediate and indirect foreign direct investment (FDI) was up by €48 billion at the end of 2019 to €1,372 billion. The ranking of individual recipient countries remained broadly unchanged: almost 30%, or €391 billion worth, of all German FDI went to the United States, which was once again number one.

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.