Dollar Slide May Hit Bundesbank Profits

The decline in the value of the U.S. dollar against the euro is likely to force the German Central Bank, the Bundesbank, to mark down earnings running into the billions, German business daily Financial Times Deutschland reported on Wednesday. 'We'll make less of a profit this year than we did last year,' Bundesbank board member Hans Georg Fabritius told the newspaper. The German central bank, which already saw its profits cut in half to €5.43 billion last year, will make big writedowns against its dollar reserves this year, FT Deutschland said, adding that the bank may have to write off as much as $6 billion. The Bundesbank however still has access to reserves worth €4.4 million stemming from untouched profits accumulated during a period when the euro was still weak.