The Federal Ministry of Finance has started issuing the €5 "Planet Earth" collector coin as of 14 April 2016. The new collector coin has met with such strong demand that it is already out of stock at many Bundesbank branches.

Consumer prices have hardly increased and have even fallen at times of late. A key reason for this is the strong decline in the oil price, making fuel and heating distinctly cheaper for consumers. For monetary policy makers, this is a clear sign to look at inflation more closely.

The Agreement on Net Financial Assets (ANFA) regulates the leeway that the euro-area central banks have for operations conducted on their own responsibility and liability.

In a speech on 5 April 2016 Christine Lagarde called for a "three-pronged approach" to secure durable growth, with coordinated efforts in the areas of structural reforms as well as in fiscal and monetary policy.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann takes a critical view of the ECB Governing Council's latest monetary policy easing.

The study "Panel on household finances" (PHF) reveals that low nominal interest rates and the rise in property prices and share prices appear not to have changed German households' investment behaviour between 2010 and 2014. According to the Bundesbank's March Monthly Report, wealth in Germany is still relatively unevenly distributed in comparison with other euro-area countries.

The German economy got off to a lively start to 2016, according to the Bundesbank's March Monthly Report. The Bank's economists believe that growth in the first quarter of 2016 should be at least as strong as in the second half of 2015.

The Deutsche Bundesbank and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) have pledged to intensify their dialogue in an agreement signed on the fringes of the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Shanghai at the end of February.

An improved net result of financial operations, write-downs and risk provisioning caused a slight increase in the Bundesbank's profit in 2015. At the same time, the Bundesbank's net interest income was lower than at any time since monetary union was launched.

Loans for house purchase are experiencing a marked upswing in Germany. Bundesbank analyses and a Eurosystem survey of banks both show that this credit growth is being driven by greater demand. Fears that the increase could have been precipitated by looser credit standards therefore have not solidified.