EURO AREA SECURITIES ISSUES STATISTICS: MARCH 2010

The annual growth rate of the outstanding amount of debt securities issued by euro area residents decreased from 6.3% in February 2010 to 6.0% in March. For the outstanding amount of quoted shares issued by euro area residents, the annual growth rate decreased from 3.0% in February 2010 to 2.8% in March.

New issuance of debt securities by euro area residents totalled EUR 1,039 billion in March 2010. Redemptions came to EUR 919 billion and net issues amounted to EUR 120 billion. The annual growth rate of outstanding debt securities issued by euro area residents decreased from 6.3% in February 2010 to 6.0% in March.

As regards the sectoral breakdown, the annual growth rate of outstanding debt securities issued by nonfinancial corporations increased from 15.0% in February 2010 to 16.0% in March. For the monetary financial institutions (MFIs) sector, this growth rate increased from 0.6% in February 2010 to 1.4% in March. The annual growth rate of outstanding debt securities issued by financial corporations other than MFIs decreased from 8.6% in February 2010 to 7.2% in March. For the general government, this growth rate decreased from 9.8% in February 2010 to 8.7% in March.

As regards the maturity breakdown, the annual growth rate of outstanding short-term debt securities decreased from -5.6% in February 2010 to -6.4% in March. The annual growth rate of outstanding short-term debt securities issued by MFIs increased from -13.9% to -11.7% during the same period. For long-term debt securities, the annual growth rate decreased from 7.9% in February 2010 to 7.7% in March. The annual growth rate of outstanding long-term debt securities issued by MFIs increased from 3.4% to 3.8% during the same period. The annual growth rate of outstanding fixed rate long-term debt securities decreased from 10.8% in February 2010 to 10.4% in March. The annual growth rate of outstanding variable rate long-term debt securities decreased from 1.6% in February 2010 to 1.4% in March.

Concerning the currency breakdown, the annual growth rate of outstanding euro-denominated debt securities decreased from 6.4% in February 2010 to 6.2% in March. For debt securities in other currencies, this growth rate decreased from 5.7% in February 2010 to 4.8% in March.

The seasonally adjusted three-month annualised growth rate of outstanding debt securities issued by euro area residents increased from 1.8% in February 2010 to 4.6% in March.

New issuance of quoted shares by euro area residents totalled EUR 9.5 billion in March 2010. As redemptions came to EUR 0.2 billion, net issues amounted to EUR 9.3 billion. The annual growth rate of the outstanding amount of quoted shares issued by euro area residents (excluding valuation changes) decreased from 3.0% in February 2010 to 2.8% in March. The annual growth rate of quoted shares issued by non-financial corporations decreased from 2.0% in February 2010 to 1.8% in March. For monetary financial institutions, it decreased from 8.2% in February 2010 to 7.4% in March. For financial corporations other than MFIs, this growth rate was 5.4% in March 2010, the same as in February.

The outstanding amount of quoted shares issued by euro area residents totalled EUR 4,493 billion at the end of March 2010. Compared with EUR 3,027 billion at the end of March 2009, this represents an annual increase of 48.4% in the value of the stock of quoted shares in March 2010, up from 42.0% in February.

Unless otherwise indicated, data relate to non-seasonally adjusted statistics. In addition to the developments for March 2010, this press release incorporates minor revisions to the data for previous periods. In addition, as of the reference periods December 2008 and December 2009, respectively, two euro area countries extended the coverage of debt securities issued to include also the non-MFI corporations and the short-term debt securities issued by the general government sector; the coverage of quoted shares has also been expanded to include also international listings. As the annual growth rates are based on financial transactions that occur when an institutional unit incurs or redeems liabilities, they are not affected by the impact of any other changes which do not arise from transactions. A complete set of updated securities issues statistics is available on the “Money, banking and financial markets” pages of the “Statistics” section of the ECB’s website (http://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/money/securities/html/index.en.html). These data, as well as euro area data in accordance with the composition of the euro area at the time of the reference period, can be downloaded using the ECB’s Statistical Data Warehouse (SDW).

Data for the period up to March 2010 will also be published in the June 2010 issues of the ECB’s Monthly Bulletin and Statistics Pocket Book. The next press release on euro area securities issues will be published on 11 June 2010.

Source of origin: European Central Bank, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.