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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elmatador who wrote (91690)	6/19/2012 10:29:07 AM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Respond to of 217885

Eurosystem's Balance Sheet Hits All-Time High in Week Ending June 15 19-Jun-2012 By Tom Fairless The balance sheet of the euro-zone's central banks rose to an all-time high in the week ending June 15, as demand for the European Central Bank's one-week loans returned to levels last seen in February, data from the European Central Bank showed Tuesday. The Eurosystem's balance sheet volume grew by 17.62 billion euros ($22.29 billion), or 0.58%, from the previous week, settling at EUR3.027 trillion. The balance sheet is 58% larger than it was a year earlier.The Eurosystem consists of the ECB and the 17 euro-zone national central banks. The increase comes after demand for the ECB's unlimited one-week credit rose last week to a level not seen since the ECB's massive three-year loan allotment at the end of February. The ECB allotted EUR131.75 billion in seven-day funds last Tuesday, up from EUR119.37 billion the previous week and the most at a main refinancing operation since it settled February 22. The Eurosystem's balance sheet previously hit a record EUR3.023 trillion in the wake of the ECB's second three-year loan to banks in late February, before trending down as demand for the ECB's weekly credit dwindled. The ECB lent more than EUR1 trillion to euro-zone commercial banks in December and February in an effort to bolster lending to the real economy. The loans also had the effect of bringing down the cost of government borrowing as banks invested some of the funds in government bonds. Critics argue that the expansion of the balance sheet, an account of assets matched by the exact same amount of liabilities, may cause inflation to accelerate. Write to Tom Fairless at tom.fairless@dowjones.com