Bundesbank monthly report: Stupid German Money is a fairy tale

The German net foreign assets has, within a decade to around 1.8 trillion euros, nearly tripled, shows a new analysis of the Bundesbank. In the growing overseas assets, high current account surpluses in Germany reflect. One of the main reasons for the great German capital to flow abroad, according to estimates by the Bundesbank, the high Saving propensities of the ageing society.

Philip Plickert

editor in the business, responsible for “The economist”.

F. A. Z.

The return on the foreign investments was “no worse” than those of the comparable facilities in Germany, the Bundesbank’s Economists in their monthly report released on Monday. This is contrary to the assertion of “Stupid German Money” – the Germans were internationally particularly stupid money investor, it is sometimes controversial in financial circles.

The Bundesbank, sees it differently. “The German investors are sometimes accused of investing your money in an inefficient, and therefore wrong,” she writes. But the returns for the various asset classes over the past decade show the opposite. Thus, the yield on the German lag direct investment abroad in the years 2008 to 2017 at an average of 5.2 percent.

German invested their money better as a foreigner in Germany

With the purchase of foreign bonds, the German achieved even higher returns (4.7 percent) than foreign shares and investment certificates (4.5 percent). This was mainly due to the share price slump in the Wake of the financial crisis ten years ago, while bonds in the low-interest-rate phase are highly valued. The rest of the capital investments and currency reserves of the Bundesbank came to 2.2 percent return.