Sellers' pricing practices have also changed: 'psychological prices', eg those ending in the digits 5–9, now account for a smaller portion of nominal prices as a result of the euro-cash changeover. Finally, the fact that consumers have generally used an even six and not the exact figure (5.95) as the euro-to-markka conversion coefficient has resulted in a slight (0.9%) overestimation of prices.
A distortion of the market or competition cannot be directly identified from these balances. What's more, current account balances can only by steered by policy to a limited extent. And the notion of reducing Germany’s current account surplus so as to deplete the US deficit is unfeasible simply on the basis of size.