Financial position and assets and liabilities

Exceptionally strong liquidity position

The principles and aims of financial management presented in the 2008 Annual Report  starting on page 43 are being pursued unchanged.

In the first quarter of 2009, the euro was again the Group’s most important currency in which debt is denominated. Its share of our financial debt rose, especially because of the mandatory exchangeable bond issued as part of the sale of Postbank and the collateralisation of the put option. The other basic financial data outlined in the Annual Report are still valid.

The effects of the current financial and economic crisis are minimal for our financing requirements and refinancing options because our credit quality is rated as adequate and our liquidity is extraordinarily high – in part because of the sale of Postbank.

As a result, only an average of around 7.1% (previous year: 10.7%) of our unsecured committed credit lines were used. The total volume of these is currently €2.8 billion, €200 million of which had been used by 31 March. Our commercial paper programme, which we launched at the beginning of 2008, was not used in the first quarter of 2009.

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