The second quarter of 2020 saw 56.25% of the German banks taking part in the Bank Lending Survey (BLS) report brisker demand for loans to enterprises. Never since the BLS was launched in 2003 have so many respondents reported an increase in demand for loans of this type.

The Bundesbank’s TARGET2 balance has been growing again significantly since March. It exceeded the €1 trillion mark in July. This renewed increase over the past few months can largely be put down to the expansion of the Eurosystem’s purchase programmes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the first half of 2020, the Bundesbank recorded approximately 34,000 counterfeit euro banknotes with a nominal value of €1.6 million. Although this means that the number of counterfeits rose significantly on the year, their volume remained low overall.

“What advanced economies need is not more finance, but better finance.” That was Andreas Dombret’s bottom line during his term of eight years in the executive board of the German central bank, spanning between 2010 and 2018. It is just one quote from one of the 47 speeches in this volume.
 

In 2018, individuals in Germany stored an average of €1,364 in cash at home or in a safe deposit box, a study from the Bundesbank’s latest Monthly Report reveals. Research shows that this is mainly the result of financial and practical reasons such as the low interest rate level or the usability of cash as a means of payment. The study did not provide any evidence of tax avoidance as a motive for storing cash. 

“German economic output is likely to have declined considerably more sharply in the second quarter of 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic than in the first quarter,” the Bundesbank explains in the latest edition of its Monthly Report. According to the Bundesbank, it can be assumed, however, that economic activity already bottomed out in April and that the economy has been recovering since then.

A new exhibition at the German Architecture Museum (DAM) is showcasing all the designs submitted for the Bundesbank’s new campus on the grounds of its Central Office in Frankfurt am Main. The opening ceremony saw Executive Board member Johannes Beermann award prizes for the best designs.

“The past becomes the future – the Bundesbank’s Central Office in Frankfurt am Main” takes a close look at the architecture of the building, setting it in historical context.

Germany’s net international investment position shrank by €90 billion in the first quarter of 2020 - its first drop in eight years. One factor in this decline was the slide in prices in global capital markets triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. Overall, net international investment position remained at a high level of €2.4 trillion.

The Deutsche Mark, the symbol of German unity, became official legal tender in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) on 1 July 1990. Supplying the public with Deutsche Mark on time represented a huge logistical undertaking by Bundesbank staff.