The possible introduction of a digital euro has been the subject of intensive debate among specialists for some time now. The discussion has been slow to trickle down to consumers, however, as revealed by the findings of a representative study presented by the Bundesbank in its latest Monthly Report. 77% of participants surveyed in April 2021 had never heard of the digital euro.

The annual inflation rate in Germany was 4.1% in September, and the Bundesbank expects prices to continue rising for the time being. “Overall, the inflation rate is likely to rise further at first, before gradually declining in the coming year,” the Bundesbank’s economists write in the current issue of the Monthly Report, explaining that statistical effects are one contributing factor. 

The Eurosystem’s monetary policy has only a relatively minor impact on the prices of Bitcoin and other crypto tokens. This is the conclusion reached by Bundesbank experts in the September edition of the Monthly Report, which states that “monetary policy impulses explain only a fraction of the volatile price developments”. At first glance, the high rates of growth seen by crypto tokens appear to be attributable to other factors.

The Central Bank Council of the Bank deutscher Länder and its successor authority, the Bundesbank, was almost exclusively a men’s-only club: from 1948 until it was replaced by the Executive Board in the aftermath of the structural reform in 2002, only one woman – Julia Dingwort-Nusseck – managed to become a member of this body. On this Wednesday, 6 October 2021, she celebrates her 100th birthday in Hamburg. She is the oldest ever former member of the Central Bank Council.

“The recovery of the German economy, which began in spring, continued at a faster pace in the third quarter of 2021,” the Bundesbank writes in its Monthly Report. Particularly strong growth was reported for private consumption and services. Supply-side constraints persisted in industry, however, so that output continued to lag considerably behind strong demand.

The performance of German credit institutions was encumbered last year by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Virtually all of the categories of banks recorded either stagnating or receding results for the financial year before tax compared with 2019, the Bundesbank writes in its current Monthly Report. It notes that the surge in risk provisioning in credit business in particular and the ensuing deterioration in results from the valuation of assets were responsible for this.

Introducing central bank digital currency (CBDC) is not an end in itself, believes Jens Weidmann. Rather, a digital euro needs to provide a clear value added to the citizens of the euro area. “CBDCs should only be issued if the perceived benefits outweigh any potential drawbacks or risks,” the Bundesbank President said in a speech at a virtual conference.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has warned against ignoring the uncertainty surrounding future price developments. “We also need to keep an eye on the risks to the price outlook. In my view, the risks are tilted to the upside right now,” he said at the Bundesbank symposium “Banking supervision in dialogue”.

The Bundesbank has been directly confronted with the fallout from the devastating floods that hit North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate in mid-July. It is analysing and replacing soaked and damaged banknotes in a process allowing affected inhabitants to be reimbursed with the value of their damaged cash. Bundesbank Executive Board member Johannes Beermann visited the National Analysis Centre for Counterfeit and Damaged Banknotes and Coins in Mainz for an update on the progress made so far.

The Bundesbank assumes that inflation rates in Germany will continue to rise. Its experts write that, as things currently stand, inflation rates of between 4% and 5% will be possible at the end of the year. Inflation is then likely to stabilise again to a marked extent in early 2022, but could remain above 2% up to mid-2022.