As of 2022 we have a new course format called “Current Focus”. This format addresses current topics which emerge during a year and is aimed at all interested employees of our partner central banks, without restrictions on the number of participants. It touches on specific economic developments or central bank topics in a comprehensive way. Thus, each Current Focus takes between one and two hours and is held virtually. The events are announced on our website on an ad hoc basis, several weeks in advance.

In 2022 we have already had three sessions in this format, covering the topics of the Bundesbank’s Financial Stability Review, climate related risks in central banks’ risk management, and the Eurosystem’s new monetary policy strategy.

In November we had a Current Focus on “Agile working at central banks”, which was with 160 participants from 19 countries and lively discussions very successful.

And the year will certainly end with a highlight, as our Head of Directorate General Economics, Jens Ulbrich, will present the Bundesbank’s current forecasts of important economic metrics for Germany. The Bundesbank regularly prepares extensive forecasts concerning consumer prices and other price indices, gross domestic product and its components, employment and unemployment, and trends in public finances in particular. These forecasts are not only used to prepare monetary policy decisions; they are also an integral component – together with the forecasts produced by the other national central banks – of the projections that the Eurosystem experts draw up for the euro area. In turn, the ECB’s Governing Council draws on the results of these projections when assessing economic developments and risks to price stability.

Text: Katja Hofmann