The European Central Bank and the national central banks of the Eurosystem began rolling out a second series of euro banknotes in May 2013. The last two denominations – the new €100 and €200 banknotes – will start circulating on 28 May 2019.

The Bundesbank’s website has a new editing system. The new platform enables the Bundesbank to structure its website content more quickly and flexibly and better address the needs of its users. Find out what is new here. 

The German economy made a weak start to the third quarter following fairly robust growth in the spring. According to the Bundesbank’s latest Monthly Report, this was mainly due to a substantial fall in production by car manufacturers. However, the Monthly Report points out that the German economic upswing is essentially intact.

The protracted period of low interest rates continued to take its toll on German banks’ profits last year, as the Bundesbank’s latest Monthly Report reveals in an analysis of the annual financial statements of German banks. Driven by a considerable decline in net interest income, aggregate operating income for all German banks fell by 3.8% to €123.1 billion.

Digital payments are on the rise in Germany. In 2017, more than 21 billion cashless payments were made in Germany. There was an especially large increase in the number of card payments.

Sabine Mauderer and Burkhard Balz took up office as members of the Executive Board of the Bundesbank on 1 September. Ms. Mauderer and Mr. Balz, both lawyers by training, are succeeding Carl-Ludwig Thiele and Andreas Dombret, who stepped down from the Executive Board at the end of April 2018.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann sees digitalisation as a development that could potentially influence the path of productivity, employment and inflation. Its impact could go in different directions, however, and this needs to be borne in mind when considering its possible repercussions for the room for monetary policy manoeuvre, he argued in a speech at the annual meeting of the German Economic Association (Verein für Socialpolitik) in Freiburg.

This year saw the Carl Menger Prize for Economics awarded to economist Silvana Tenreyro. Achim Wambach presented her with the award, which comes with prize money of €20,000, at the annual meeting of the German Economic Association in Freiburg.

The Bundesbank’s Money Museum stand at the Embankment Festival in Frankfurt am Main attracted around 16,500 visitors. Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann himself visited the stand and took the opportunity to strike a souvenir coin.

After the year got off to a moderate start, the German economy rebounded quite strongly in the second quarter of 2018. The Bundesbank believes that the German economy is likely to remain on a sound growth path in the current quarter. However, as is explained further in the August issue of the Monthly Report, the pace of growth could tail off slightly.