At the end of 2021, Germany’s primary outward foreign direct investment (FDI) stocks were up 8% on the year at €1,506 billion. Stocks of FDI in Germany show a different picture. A decline was recorded for the first time in a long period, with stocks down 2% to €852 billion. At €169 billion, German FDI flows abroad proved robust for 2022, despite being down slightly on the exceptionally high level of the previous year. By contrast, FDI flows from abroad to Germany almost halved to €44 billion.

After three quarters of decline, households’ financial assets grew in the fourth quarter of 2022, standing at €7,254 billion at the end of the year. Households’ claims increased by a total of €68 billion. Following three quarters of significant valuation losses, valuation gains were recorded again, amounting to €43 billion in total.

The German current account recorded a surplus of €22.6 billion in February 2023, up €5.6 billion on the previous month’s level. 

General government debt in Germany as defined by the Maastricht Treaty increased by €71 billion in 2022 to €2.57 trillion. Debt rose at a slower rate than in previous years, with lower needs from the coronavirus pandemic as it came to an end being counteracted by new burdens arising from the energy crisis. Central government debt grew by €97 billion, but state government debt fell markedly. The debt ratio, meaning the ratio of debt to nominal gross domestic product, fell by 2.9 percentage points to 66.4%.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €16.2 billion in January 2023, down €9.4 billion on the previous month’s level. 

Professor Joachim Wuermeling has notified the Executive Board that he wishes to take up a new position in 2024 and will therefore be leaving the Bundesbank at the end of the year, some months before the end of his term of office. Against this background, and alongside further organisational adjustments, the Executive Board of the Bundesbank has adopted a reallocation of responsibilities that will come into effect on 1 April 2023.

The monetary policy turnaround shaped the Bundesbank’s balance sheet last year. The profit and loss account for 2022 reported a distributable profit of zero. This result was achieved by tapping €1 billion worth of risk provisions. As in the previous years, no profit was transferred to the Federal budget. “The Bundesbank sustained exceptional financial burdens in 2022,” Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel explained with regard to the annual accounts.

Germany’s current account recorded a surplus of €24.3 billion in December 2022, up €6.9 billion on the previous month’s level. While the surplus in the goods account actually decreased, the surplus in invisible current transactions, which comprise services as well as primary and secondary income, experienced a considerably stronger increase.

The German banks tightened their credit standards for loans to enterprises, loans to households for house purchase as well as consumer credit and other lending in the fourth quarter of 2022. Credit terms and conditions were also made more restrictive in all three loan categories.

In 2022, the Bundesbank registered approximately 44,100 counterfeit euro banknotes with a nominal value of €2.7 million in German payments. The number of counterfeits was thus up by 5.2% on the year.