The Bundesbank condemns the war of aggression against Ukraine. As a symbol of solidarity, we have raised the Ukrainian flag in front of our building in Frankfurt city centre. Our thoughts are with the children, women and men in Ukraine.

According to the current issue of the Bundesbank’s Monthly Report, consumer prices in Germany and worldwide are continuing to rise extraordinarily sharply. While Germany’s economy remains in the grip of the Omicron variant, very robust demand is likely to see GDP “rebound strongly in the second quarter, provided the pandemic subsides and the supply bottlenecks continue to ease,” write the Bank’s experts. 

House prices in German towns and cities rose by 7% in 2021, which was a somewhat brisker rate of growth than in 2020.

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.