I am confident that our financial system can mobilise the necessary financing, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said in a speech at the Adam Smith Business School in Glasgow, where he talked about the financing for the transition to a greenhouse gas-neutral economy. He also elaborated on what the potential financing mix to fund the transition might look like. Furthermore, Nagel emphasised the need for a strong banking system and improved access to capital market financing. 

Bundesbank Executive Board member Burkhard Balz has spoken out in favour of a future that includes cash: Let us work together to ensure that cash keeps its time-tested place in an increasingly digitalised world, he said in his speech at the Bundesbank’s cash symposium in Berlin. In order to guarantee freedom of choice in payments, access to and acceptance of cash must be maintained, said Mr Balz.

The Governing Council of the ECB has shortlisted the motifs for the two possible themes for future euro banknotes: “European culture: shared cultural spaces” and “Rivers and birds: resilience in diversity”. The selected motifs include Ludwig van Beethoven, Marie Curie and Leonardo da Vinci. “Rivers and birds” included a kingfisher in a waterfall, a white stork flying over a river valley and a wallcreeper next to a mountain landscape. The ECB is expected to make the final decision on the designs of the new banknotes in 2026.

The German economy remained listless at the end of 2024. According to the Bundesbank’s latest Monthly Report, industry has been particularly weak. It is also unlikely that the German economy will manage to escape the period of stagnation in the first quarter of 2025. The inflation rate is still elevated but is likely to decline soon.