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. … Read more »

Items not related to monetary policy operations In the week ending 7 May 2010 the decrease of EUR 1 million in gold and gold receivables reflected the sale of gold by one Eurosystem central bank (consistent with the Central Bank Gold Agreement that came into effect on 27 September 2009). … Read more »

REACTIVATION OF US DOLLAR LIQUIDITY PROVIDING OPERATIONS In response to the re-emergence of strains in U.S. dollar short-term funding markets in Europe, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank (ECB), the Federal Reserve, and the Swiss National Bank are announcing the re-establishment of temporary U.S. dollar liquidity swap facilities. These facilities are designed to help improve liquidity conditions in U.S. dollar funding markets and to prevent the spread of strains to … Read more »

ECB DECIDES ON MEASURES TO ADDRESS SEVERE TENSIONS IN FINANCIAL MARKETS The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) decided on several measures to address the severe tensions in certain market segments which are hampering the monetary policy transmission mechanism and thereby the effective conduct of monetary policy oriented towards price stability in the medium term. The measures will not affect the stance of monetary policy. … Read more »