Britta Weinmann is the Bundesbank’s new representative at the German embassy in Moscow. Ms Weinmann, who previously worked in banking supervision at the Bundesbank’s Regional Office in Hesse, took over the role based in Russia’s capital city from Sven Redel on 1 August.

On 2 October 2019, the European Central Bank started publishing the euro short-term rate (€STR). The €STR complements existing private sector reference rates and is also recommended as the new overnight reference rate for the euro area.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann paid tribute to the outgoing Governor of Austria’s central bank, Ewald Nowotny. In a speech held in Vienna, Mr Weidmann said that “what the Governing Council needs is experience and independence of judgement, and that is something Ewald Nowotny has always supplied in abundance.”

Germany’s external assets grew again in 2018, standing at €2,073 billion at the end of the year. This represents an increase of €281 billion on the year.

Patricia Staab will assume her post as the new President of the Bundesbank’s Regional Office in Baden-Württemberg with effect from 1 October 2019. She will succeed Bernhard Sibold, who will be retiring after a 39-year career at the Bundesbank. At a handover ceremony in Stuttgart, she was congratulated by Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann, who took the opportunity to address the current decision by the Governing Council of the ECB.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has described the inflation expectations of German consumers as “well anchored”. This was demonstrated by the initial findings of a pilot study conducted by the Bundesbank, which Mr Weidmann presented at a conference. François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Banque de France, welcomed the new Bundesbank study, as he believed that reliable data on inflation expectations in the euro area had thus far been scarce.

The profitability of German credit institutions deteriorated in 2018, as the Bundesbank’s Monthly Report reveals in an analysis of the annual accounts of German banks. Profit for the financial year fell significantly compared to the previous year, down by 31% to €18.9 billion.

The German economy got the third quarter off to a sluggish start. “This was due primarily to export-oriented industry, where the downturn continued,” according to the current issue of the Bundesbank’s Monthly Report.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann says that the ECB Governing Council has gone too far with its comprehensive package of monetary policy easing. “All I can say is that I will do what I can to ensure that interest rate increases are not put off for any longer than necessary,” he pledged in an interview with Germany’s “BILD-Zeitung” newspaper.

At the meeting on 12 september the Governing Council of the ECB decided to decrease the interest rate on the deposit facility by 10 basis points to -0.50 percent. Net purchases will be restarted under the Governing Council’s asset purchase programme at a monthly pace of €20 billion as from 1 November.