Members of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), including the Bundesbank, have renewed their Statements of Commitment to the FX Global Code. The Code, which aims to promote a robust, fair, liquid, open and appropriately transparent foreign exchange market, was updated and expanded in July 2021. According to an ECB press release “With these Statements of Commitment, the members of the ESCB emphasise that the principles of the Code are important in ensuring the continued integrity and effective functioning of the foreign exchange market.”

Individuals contribute significantly to carbon emissions. A recent Bundesbank discussion paper shows that providing information on combating climate change motivates individuals to reduce their carbon footprint. Presenting the information as the result of scientific research is just as effective as framing it as the behaviour of other people, the study finds. Both approaches led to the survey respondents stating that they wish to make more environmentally friendly choices.

The devastating flooding last year hit people hard. Since then, employees at the Bundesbank have been processing numerous notes and coins from flood-affected areas – most of them by hand. More than 1.5 million banknotes and 1.2 million coins have been submitted to the Bundesbank so far, explained Bundesbank Executive Board member Johannes Beermann at a press conference in Mainz. “In total, the Bundesbank has replaced cash worth more than 100 million euro.”

Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel has warned against waiting too long to begin monetary policy normalisation. In an interview with “DIE ZEIT” he pointed to significant risks, saying “if we act later we would have to raise interest rates more substantially and at a faster pace.”

The Bundesbank’s economists have examined how climate action affects the value of stock corporations. The outcome under the assumptions made was that a large proportion of the corporations under review did not suffer major equity price losses as a consequence of their direct greenhouse gas emissions, even for a sharp rise in carbon prices. By contrast, shares in companies whose greenhouse gas emissions cause them high costs in relation to their dividends suffer large losses. Stock corporations whose business centres around fossil energy sources are hardest hit.

The third event in the “Designing climate policies” series saw experts from academia and central banking discuss the role of households in the ecological transformation. Bundesbank Vice-President Claudia Buch introduced to the event, which was organised by the Bundesbank together with the Center for Liberal Modernity and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

In 2022, Germany assumed the presidency of the Group of Seven (G7) for the third time. The G7 is an informal gathering of the Heads of State or Government of the seven most advanced industrial economies and an informal forum for exchanging views and opinions and coordinating joint policy positions. Its members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Bundesbank registered approximately 42,000 counterfeit euro banknotes with a nominal value of €1.9 million in 2021, representing a 28.6% decrease on the previous year. This drop was because manufacturers and distributors of counterfeits had fewer outlets, explained Bundesbank Executive Board member Johannes Beermann.

The latest issue of the Monthly Report explains how risks stemming from climate change and climate policy can affect economic developments in Europe. It describes how, alongside the impact of extreme weather events and gradually rising temperatures, it is notably the macroeconomic repercussions of climate policy that are likely to become significant in the near future. This poses additional challenges to macroeconomic analysis, which is key to monetary policy decision-making. With that in mind, the Bundesbank is adapting its analytical toolkit.

In the final quarter of 2021, economic output in Germany is likely to have declined slightly, the Bundesbank writes in its current Monthly Report. According to the Bank’s experts, this is primarily due to the resurgence of the pandemic. While gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 2.7% on the year in 2021 as a whole, this was not nearly enough to offset the sharp decline of the previous year, the Bank’s experts say.