At the meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Helsinki on 13 September 2019, Germany and France issued a joint statement on the digital currency Libra. Federal Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz and his French counterpart Bruno Le Maire oppose Facebook’s digital currency. They consider that the Libra project fails to convince that risks will be properly addressed.

On 24 and 25 July 2019, researchers and government officials came together at the German Finance Ministry to discuss issues relating to national and international tax policy. The researchers presented the latest results of their ongoing research projects.

At their meeting in Chantilly (France) on 17 and 18 July, the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors discussed the risks associated with stablecoins. They reiterated the importance of a fair international tax system and, for the first time, agreed on the introduction of a global minimum effective corporate tax as an explicit aim.

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is an emerging basic technology of the digital age. In order to address the challenges raised by this technology, the Federal Ministry of Finance is helping to create a national regulatory framework for crypto tokens with the aim of unlocking the potential of DLT and at the same time preventing misuse.

The high-level working group proposed jointly in May by Germany, the Netherlands and France is now taking shape. On 12 June 2019, the first members of the high-level working group were announced. The group’s analysis and recommendations – which will flow into the CMU roadmap – are to be delivered no later than 30 September 2019.

Social inequality is a central subject in debates over economic and social policy. Along with inclusive growth, it has been on the G7 and G20 agenda for a number of years. In Germany, disposable income inequality is relatively low compared with other countries, even though the country performs less well when it comes to equality of wealth. The German government supports France’s initiative to make tackling inequality a key focus of its G7 presidency.

In an interview with The Nikkei, Japan’s leading business daily, Vice-Chancellor and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz discusses issues at the top of today’s fiscal policy agenda. In the run-up to the G20 meeting in Japan, he underlines how important it is for leaders to agree on an international system that ensures a minimum level of taxation. He also talks about current national projects such as the basic pension.

The German government created a Sustainable Finance Committee on 6 June 2019. The Committee’s purpose is to advise the German government as it drafts and implements a sustainable finance strategy, as well as to pool existing expertise and foster dialogue between the relevant players. The Committee is made up of representatives from business, civil society and academia, as well as representatives from a number of federal ministries.

The Retirement Income Act, which came into effect on 1 January 2005, changed the way pensions are taxed. As a result of these changes, more and more pensioners are liable to pay tax, even if they live outside Germany. In the past, dealing with pensioners living abroad posed special challenges for the revenue administration, not least due to language barriers.

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has teamed up with Wopke Hoekstra and Bruno Le Maire, the finance ministers of the Netherlands and France, to launch an initiative to advance the Capital Markets Union, a step that will durably strengthen the EU internal market. The three finance ministers want to set up a high-level group of experts that will formulate specific milestones this year for the integration of European capital markets.

How have the European regulatory reforms adopted since the global financial crisis affected Germany’s financial sector? The Federal Ministry of Finance recently commissioned a report to find this out. The report, which was produced by the SAFE Research Center at Frankfurt University, found that the policy measures adopted at the European level are proving effective and are enhancing financial stability.

During a recent visit to Washington, D.C., State Secretary Wolfgang Schmidt confirmed German financial support for two thematic technical assistance funds at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The funds help IMF member countries to improve their statistics systems and to make their financial markets more resilient against crises.

On 12 April 2019, Federal Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz gave a speech at the Peterson Institute for International Economics on "The Transatlantic Partnership: Common Values in a Changing World". He underlined the importance of a strong and stable European Union side by side with a powerful but principled United States of America.

On 21 March, the Fintech Council convened for the first time with its new members at the German Ministry of Finance. The Council elected Christ Bartz as its new chair and adopted a position paper on regulating financial service providers’ use of cloud computing.

The AIIB has achieved major milestones since its launch as a new multilateral bank in 2016: The bank’s membership and project portfolio have grown. It is working together successfully with other multilateral banks. And the three leading rating agencies have awarded the bank top marks.

To mark the 150th anniversary of double taxation agreements, the 6th International Tax Symposium on 8 May 2019 will focus on recent challenges in the area of German and international tax treaty policy. Against the backdrop of increasingly automated and digital economies, discussions will be held on the question of whether traditional taxation approaches are still fit for purpose.

The Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection have jointly published a key-issues paper discussing the possible introduction of electronic securities and the regulation of public offers of certain crypto tokens. The paper forms part of efforts to strengthen Germany’s role as one of the world’s leading digital technology and fintech locations.

On 27 March 2019, German finance minister Olaf Scholz met Menno Snel, State Secretary for Finance at the Dutch Ministry of Finance. In a joint statement, the two countries reaffirmed their commitment to combating tax avoidance by agreeing and implementing the OECD and EU standards on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS).

The German government created a Sustainable Finance Committee on 6 June 2019. The Committee’s purpose is to advise the German government as it drafts and implements a sustainable finance strategy, as well as to pool existing expertise and foster dialogue between the relevant players. The Committee is made up of representatives from business, civil society and academia, as well as representatives from a number of federal ministries.

In his speech at the Global Solutions Summit taking place in Berlin on 18 March 2019, German Finance Minister and Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz endorsed an international minimum level of taxation to ensure that states are able to finance their public goods. He also called for a multilateral approach, arguing that global problems such as climate change or social inequality can only be tackled through international cooperation.

This year’s Annual Economic Report was adopted by the federal cabinet on 30 January 2019. The German economy is experiencing growth for the tenth year in a row. The German government’s economic and fiscal policies are still guided by the tenets of the social market economy. This article summarises the key points of the 2019 Annual Economic Report.

For our next Fiscal Policy Seminar on 7-8 October 2019, the Federal Ministry of Finance is once again looking for research papers that present new and innovative ideas. This year’s theme is: “Analysing developments in savings, investments and interest rates – reassessing the role of fiscal policies for growth and stabilisation”. We are now accepting submissions.

Ahead of his trip to the Iberian Peninsula, German Finance Minister and Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz gave an interview to the Spanish newspaper El País and the Portuguese newspaper Expresso. He spoke about current European issues, underlining that it is not Germany’s role within the European Union to give advice to others. Instead, he affirmed that jointly-taken European decisions are what is needed to solve many of the urgent challenges.