Frankfurt (Germany) (AFP) – The European Central Bank on Thursday reported a record loss in 2024 after it had aggressively hiked eurozone interest rates in response to soaring inflation. The ECB lost 7.9 billion euros ($8.3 billion) last year, the second-straight year the Frankfurt-based institution has been in the red. In 2023, the central bank was down 1.3 billion euros, its first loss since 2004 after an extended period of relatively low borrowing costs. The figure for 2023 would have been similar to last year’s had the ECB not deployed all the 6.6 billion euros set aside to soak up losses.
The ECB began raising borrowing costs at an unprecedented rate in July 2022 as Russia’s war in Ukraine pushed up energy and food costs. The central bank’s benchmark deposit rate topped out at four percent in late 2023, as price pressures began to wane. With inflation headed down, the ECB started cutting rates again from June 2024, but not enough to significantly affect its losses.
“The losses come after many years of substantial profits and are the result of policy actions taken…to fulfil its primary mandate of maintaining price stability,” the ECB said. “Increases in the ECB’s key interest rates in 2022 and 2023” resulted in higher interest expenses for the central bank itself on its liabilities, while income from interest on its assets did not rise as fast. The last two years of losses would be “offset against future profits” on the ECB’s balance sheet, it added. The ECB would “still incur losses in the coming years.”
“Should this be the case, any such losses are expected to be lower than those incurred in 2023 and 2024. Thereafter, the ECB is expected to return to making profits,” the bank said. The ECB said it remained in a robust financial position and could “fulfil its primary mandate of maintaining price stability regardless of any losses.”
© 2024 AFP
