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 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.

“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.

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.

The Bundesbank’s Research Centre has published its 1,000th discussion paper. In this anniversary issue, economist Arne Halberstadt investigates how expert surveys can be used to model interest rate expectations.

Bundesbank Executive Board member Joachim Wuermeling says German banks proved to be robust in the EU-wide stress tests conducted by the European Banking Authority (EBA) and the European Central Bank (ECB). “They would consistently meet the high capital requirements, even in a severe economic crisis,” said Mr Wuermeling.

In the first half of 2021, the Bundesbank recorded approximately 21,400 counterfeit euro banknotes with a nominal value of €1 million. This represents a decline of 13% compared with the second half of 2020. This is due to the coronavirus restrictions, said Bundesbank Executive Board member Johannes Beermann.