Following a period of fairly robust growth in the German economy in the first two quarters of 2015, the Bundesbank's economists expect gross domestic product to continue its positive development in the second half of the year. Growth in the second quarter was chiefly due to buoyant exports.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has called for the greater integration of European financial markets. Higher capital requirements for systemically important financial institutions, a functioning resolution mechanism, an end to the preferential regulatory treatment of sovereign debt and the removal of regulatory and tax barriers for capital markets - particularly for equity capital markets - are key prerequisites for this, he said.

The emerging market economies have grown significantly over the past 20 years, increasingly becoming the engine fuelling global growth. Recently, however, economic momentum in China, Russia and other countries has tailed off considerably. In the July Monthly Report, the Bundesbank's economists look into the drivers behind this development.

The number of counterfeit euro banknotes seized by the Bundesbank in the first half of 2015 was up 31% on the second half of 2014. However, measured against the amount of cash in circulation in Germany, the incidence of counterfeits remained low, said Bundesbank Executive Board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele. Of all the denominations, €20 and €50 banknotes were counterfeited particularly frequently.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has spoken out against increasing the liquidity assistance provided by the Eurosystem to Greece. If short-term assistance was thought to be necessary, it was up to politicians to provide it, he said at a Bundesbank conference in Frankfurt am Main. Greece needed to keep capital controls in place until an appropriate support package had been agreed by all parties and the solvency of both the Greek government and the Greek banking system had been ensured, said Mr Weidmann.

Bundesbank Executive Board member Andreas Dombret has asked German banks to step up their efforts in digitalising the industry. German banks should also be making greater investments in IT security in order to protect customer data, he said to an audience of around 700 representatives from banking supervision and the banking industry who attended the Bundesbank's 19th banking symposium in Frankfurt.

1 July 1990 marked the day on which the Deutsche Mark was introduced as the official currency in the then German Democratic Republic and became a symbol of German unity. The Bundesbank played a crucial role in the currency changeover.

The Bundesbank marked the 25th anniversary of German monetary union with a ceremony in Leipzig, at which speakers included the former Finance Minister Theodor Waigel and member of the Bundesbank's Executive Board Carl-Ludwig Thiele. Contemporary witnesses detailed their experiences of the currency changeover during a podium discussion.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann has criticised the continued provision of emergency liquidity assistance to Greek banks, which, he remarked, plainly raised serious monetary financing concerns. Respecting the euro area's core principles was indispensable for its success, however.

The new European securities settlement service, TARGET2-Securities (T2S) was launched on four markets on 22 June 2015. This represents the first step towards establishing a centralised European platform for settling securities and comes roughly seven years after the official launch of the project in 2008. Once migration has concluded in February 2017, T2S will encompass a total of 21 markets across Europe.