Brisk industrial activity kept Germany’s economy on a strongly expansionary path in the third quarter of 2017, and growth looks set to remain buoyant in the fourth quarter. The Bundesbank’s experts, writing in the latest Monthly Report, put this assessment down to the record-high sentiment in trade and industry, the excellent order situation in industry, and what remains a high level of consumer confidence.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann supports the European Central Bank’s plans to reduce non-performing loans, as they weigh on financing conditions and, ultimately, growth prospects in the member states concerned. Rules need to be established that ensure the prudent management of non-performing loans in the future, said Weidmann in Frankfurt am Main.

The Eurosystem should not maintain its current accommodative monetary policy stance indefinitely, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann says. Speaking at an event in Leipzig, he said it is legitimate to ask whether it would not have been better to set a clear end-date for the recently extended asset purchase programme.

Bundesbank Vice-President Claudia Buch has spoken out regarding the financial market reforms that were initiated in the wake of the financial crisis and the need to assess their long-term effects on the economy as a whole. Professor Buch gave a presentation on financial stability in Munich to mark the Bundesbank’s 60th anniversary.

By 2025, the Bundesbank aims to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with its use of resources by 25 per cent. The latest environmental report shows how the Bank has once again moved a step closer to achieving its goal.

A team of historians will be undertaking a comprehensive exploration of the history of the Reichsbank, the Bank deutscher Länder and the Bundesbank during the period from 1923 to 1969. In carrying out their work, they will not be bound by guidelines on the project’s content or any other instructions from the Bundesbank.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has outlined his position on the ECB Governing Council’s most recent monetary policy decisions, which involve cuts to the monthly volume of asset purchases but offer no guidance as to when the purchases will finally be discontinued. "From my point of view, a clear end date to net purchases would have been appropriate," he said in a speech delivered in Paris.

Henceforth, the Bundesbank will be represented in India by Peter Kern. Mr Kern takes over from Alexander Sattler who previously occupied this position at Germany's Consulate General in Mumbai.

On 26 October 2017, the ECB Governing Council made the decision to halve monthly Eurosystem asset purchases to €30 billion from January 2018, with asset purchases to continue at this pace until at least September 2018.

The Bundesbank has rolled out the initial results for Germany from the Eurosystem’s new money market statistical reporting (MMSR) dataset. In the current issue of the Monthly Report, its experts write that these statistics provide central banks with a considerably improved basis for a targeted design of the monetary policy toolkit.