The Germans have more and more money.

The financial assets of private households in Germany rose by 159 billion to 7.33 trillion euros in the second quarter of 2021.

The Deutsche Bundesbank announced this on Thursday.

A main reason for this are valuation gains in stocks and investment funds.

At the beginning of last year, the financial assets amounted to 6.4 trillion euros.

Low-risk and liquid investment products are still very popular with the citizens, but exposure to the stock exchange is increasing continuously, the Bundesbank said. In the quarter under review, private households bought fund shares for 24 billion euros and shares for 7 billion euros. Claims against insurance companies have increased by around 20 billion euros, slightly less than in the previous quarters. Of the total financial assets of 7.33 trillion euros in the second quarter, 2.1 trillion euros were accounted for by cash and assets in current and overnight money accounts.

Household liabilities increased by 29 billion euros to 1.97 trillion euros over the course of the quarter.

The increase was stronger than in the first quarter.

However, since macroeconomic activity picked up noticeably at the same time, the debt ratio declined overall and was most recently 57.8 percent.