Germany’s current account posted a surplus of €20.0 billion in July 2020, down €0.5 billion from the previous month’s level.

Die deutsche Leistungsbilanz verzeichnete im Juni 2020 einen Überschuss von 22,4 Mrd €. Das Ergebnis lag damit um 15,4 Mrd € über dem Niveau des Vormonats.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €6.5 billion in May 2020, putting it €2.6 billion below its level in April.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €7.7 billion in April 2020,1 putting it €17.9 billion below the March level.  

German direct investment abroad totalled €1,277 billion at the end of 2018. This represents an increase of €70 billion on the year. The United States was again the most important destination for German direct investors, with a figure of €361 billion.

Germany’s net international investment position stood at €2,073 billion at the end of 2018, thus amounting to around 62% of nominal gross domestic product. The German net external asset position rose by €281 billion year-on-year. 

The foreign direct investment stocks reached a new peak at year-end 2017. In 2017, Germany’s primary outward foreign direct investment (FDI) grew considerably by €61 billion and reached a new peak of €1,167 billion at the end of that year. In the opposite direction, inward FDI in Germany rose by €32 billion, likewise achieving its highest ever recorded value (€741 billion).

Germany’s net external position stood at €1,771 billion at the end of 2017, thus amounting to around 54% of nominal gross domestic product.

The results of the payments statistics for 2017 show that payments are becoming more digital and are increasingly made within Europe. More than 21 billion non-cash payments were made in Germany last year – around 3% more than the year before. These payments were executed on approximately 103 million current accounts. The average balance on these accounts thus rose by almost 12% to around €13,000.

The Bundesbank posted a profit of €2.0 billion for the 2017 financial year, compared with €1.0 billion one year earlier. Following an allocation to the reserves, the remaining distributable profit of €1.9 billion (previous year: €0.4 billion) was transferred in full today to the Federal Government pursuant to section 27 number 2 of the Bundesbank Act (Bundesbankgesetz).