The Bundesbank’s experts have created a new provisional dataset that can be used to examine wealth and debt developments at the level of individual households in Germany in a timely manner at quarterly intervals. According to this dataset, wealth inequality decreased slightly between 2009 and 2021, but remains high overall. The analysis presented in the current Monthly Report also shows that the rate of return on total assets varies considerably between individual households.

In the first half of 2022, around 19,800 counterfeit euro banknotes with a nominal value of just under €1 million were withdrawn from circulation in Germany. The number of counterfeits fell by 3.9% compared with the second half of 2021.

Franz-Josef Benedikt steps down as President of the Bundesbank’s Regional Office in Bavaria and is succeeded by Reinhold Vollbracht, who previously headed a strategic office in the Directorate General Banking and Financial Supervision. Mr Benedikt retires at the end of July after serving in various positions during a 36-year career at the Bundesbank.

The exhibition “Change of location” at the Museum Giersch of Goethe University Frankfurt (MGGU) has been officially opened by Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel. “This is the first time that we are showcasing such a representative and extensive array of pieces from our collection outside the Bundesbank,” he said, speaking in Frankfurt. Nagel went on to explain that the title “Change of location” is to be interpreted not just in the spatial sense: “It also opens up fresh perspectives,” he pointed out. The exhibition will run until 8 January 2023.

The fourth event in the “Designing climate policies” series saw experts from academia, politics and public institutions discuss how the ecological transformation can be financed. Bundesbank Vice-President Claudia Buch kicked off the event, which the Bundesbank organised jointly with the Center for Liberal Modernity and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel has cautioned against using monetary policy instruments to limit risk premia. “Unusual monetary policy measures to combat fragmentation can be justified only in exceptional circumstances and under narrowly-defined conditions,” he said at the Frankfurt Euro Finance Summit.

Writing in its latest Annual Economic Report, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has warned that the global economy risks entering a new era of high inflation. “The key for central banks is to act quickly and decisively before inflation becomes entrenched,” says Agustín Carstens, General Manager of the BIS.

Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel has warned that central banks must not respond to the current high inflation rates with too little, too late. “If monetary policy falls behind the curve, even stronger hikes in interest rates could become necessary to get inflation under control,” he said at the Joint Spring Conference co-hosted by the Bundesbank and the Banque de France in Eltville am Rhein. “This would create much higher economic costs,” he cautioned.

The Bundesbank notes in its current Monthly Report that inflation pushes up the tax burden on real incomes. While government regularly adjusts the income tax scale, meaning that this effect – known as bracket creep – has been more or less offset in the past, the procedure used at present involves a time lag and is prone to estimation errors. The Bundesbank therefore recommends switching to a more timely and targeted procedure.

Demographic developments will put the finances of the pension insurance scheme under pressure in future. The Bundesbank’s experts present long-term simulations on this topic in the current Monthly Report. These simulations illustrate how the government plans to achieve a permanently stable replacement rate of 48% would affect the pension contribution rate and the federal budget. They also show the effects of two reform options on the replacement rate, the contribution rate and the federal budget. Both options are international standard practice. One ties pensions in payment to inflation, whilst the other links the retirement age to rising life expectancy.