virtual halt. international supply chains were disrupted and industrial firms grappled with production stoppages caused by shortages of materials. 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches services sectors with high frequencies of interpersonal contact – such as travel, hotels, restaurants, leisure and culture – were hit even harder. german gdp contracted by 4. 6 % in 2020, and even at the end of 2021 economic activity was still 1. 5 % below its pre - pandemic level. nonetheless, germany ’ s economy has got through the covid - 19 crisis with relatively few scratches. it was mainly decisive fiscal policy intervention that kept the economic slump in germany from being even worse. fiscal policy was one of the primary actors in coping with the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic by providing financial assistance to affected firms and workers. as high as the fiscal costs of these assistance measures have been, they prevented the economy from sliding into a downward spiral which could have driven the fiscal burdens much, much higher. but the euro area ’ s single monetary policy also made a key contribution to mitigating the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. during the crisis, in addition to numerous monetary policy measures, the governing council of the ecb adopted its pandemic emergency purchase programme, or pepp, for private and public bonds with an overall envelope of just under €2 trillion. the eurosystem ’ s emergency monetary policy measures were appropriate and a bedrock in the crisis. in the meantime, the euro area ’ s economy has recovered significantly. this prompted the governing council of the ecb to announce that it would conclude net pepp purchases at the end of this month. however, for a long time it has no longer been just about exiting the pandemic - induced emergency monetary policy measures, as the economic recovery was also accompanied by a considerable increase in price pressures. consumer price inflation surged in the euro area, averaging 2. 6 % for 2021. for this year, according to its latest projection, the eurosystem is expecting the hicp to even go up to 5. 1 %, which would put inflation well above the ecb ’ s 2 % inflation target. this acceleration in price trends is attributable to global factors. globally, rising demand is encountering a level of supply that is still being limited by materials shortages and delivery bottlenecks. and, in particular, energy and food prices have risen sharply the world over. the rise in inflation has been

carl - ludwig thiele : rmb initiative – one year after start of clearing speech by mr carl - ludwig thiele, member of the executive board of the deutsche bundesbank, at the european - chinese banking day during the 18th euro finance week, frankfurt am main, 16 november 2015. * * * ladies and gentlemen i am delighted to be speaking about such an interesting topic at this year ’ s europeanchinese banking day. at last year ’ s china day, we celebrated the first rmb transactions processed by the rmb clearing bank in frankfurt. so how do things stand now, one year on, with regard to the development of the rmb and the clearing of rmb transactions? development of the rmb hub in frankfurt china has been experiencing an enormous economic upturn since the end of the 1970s, and has now become the second - largest economy in the world. in just one generation, therefore, china has made the quantum leap from donkey carts to high - speed transrapid trains. the importance of the chinese economy to the world economy is growing visibly. six years ago, its share in global gross domestic product was roughly 9 % ; this year, it looks set to hit 14 %. given the ever growing importance of the real economy, the chinese government has for some years now been pursuing a policy of cautiously opening up the financial market and is endeavouring to gradually internationalise the rmb. even though the us dollar is still the most widely used currency for trade with china, the use of the rmb as a currency of account has gained significant ground in the past few years. in trade finance, the chinese currency has surpassed the euro and now occupies second place, directly after the us dollar. measured in terms of transaction values, the rmb edged up to fourth place in august in the international payment transactions ranking. according to data from swift, more than 1, 700 banks worldwide ( from a total of just over 10, 000 participants in the swift network ) clear payments in rmb. in the past, the chinese government strengthened the rmb offshore markets, giving importers outside china a means of paying in rmb. for the political leaders, this was part of the long - term strategy to open up the markets with greater convertibility of rmb while retaining the ability to exercise control. this is because clearing in the rmb offshore markets requires the appointment of a ( chinese ) rmb clearing bank. as part of this strategy, the chinese central bank