Germany’s net external assets have been rising more or less continuously for years and came to €1.8 trillion at the end of 2017. The increase largely reflects Germany’s current account surpluses during this period, according to the Bundesbank’s latest Monthly Report.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann recently met some 140 school students from across Germany. The students, aged between 17 and 25, asked him questions about the Bundesbank’s tasks; some of the answers they received came as a surprise.

The European Central Bank’s capital key will be changing with effect from 1 January 2019 following a scheduled recalculation. The Bundesbank, along with 15 other national central banks, will be contributing a larger share to the ECB’s capital from then on.

Despite the setback in the third quarter of 2018, the German economy should continue to see solid growth for the time being, in the Bundesbank’s estimation. The Bank’s recently published autumn forecast primarily attributes the slight decline in economic output in the previous quarter to temporary difficulties in the automotive industry and believes it will be overcome rapidly.

At its meeting on 13 December, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank agreed to discontinue the net asset purchases under the asset purchase programme (APP) in December 2018.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has given a speech emphasising the good cooperation between the Bundesbank and Goethe University Frankfurt’s House of Finance. In his speech, held on the occasion of the House of Finance’s 10-year anniversary, Mr Weidmann said that the exchange between the two institutions had borne fruit on many levels.

Sabine Mauderer, Bundesbank Executive Board member and responsible for Markets and Human Resources since the beginning of September, and Yves Mersch, ECB Executive Board member, spoke at the banking and corporate evening at the Regional Office in Munich.

On 4 May 2016, the Governing Council decided that the €500 banknote will be excluded from the Europa series and the issuance of this denomination will be stopped around the end of 2018.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann believes that the Eurosystem should use the pre-crisis toolkit as a benchmark for monetary policy normalisation. In remarks made in Frankfurt am Main, Weidmann said: “If and how monetary policy should adapt its toolbox can only be assessed after we have progressed on the path of normalisation.”

Economic output in Germany dipped slightly in the third quarter of 2018. As the Deutsche Bundesbank's latest Monthly Report explains, this was caused by one-off factors. “Despite these temporary one-off effects, the economic boom in Germany continues,” write the Bundesbank’s economists.