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"Has adjustment and recovery in the Euro Area been too slow?"
St Antony’s College, Oxford,
March 11 2015 -Klaus Regling, Managing Director, ESM

Luxembourg – The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) today issued a €3 billion two-and-a-half-year bond maturing on 17 October 2017. The transaction was priced with a -0.07% reoffer yield for investors. The coupon was set at 0.00%, which delivers a reoffer price of 100.181%. It is both the first ESM bond issued with a negative yield and also the first syndicated euro-denominated SSA benchmark issued with a negative yield.

Luxembourg – The Board of Directors of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) approved the request by Spain to make a voluntary early repayment of €1.5 billion of its ESM loan. This is the second time that Spain offered to make a voluntary early repayment in respect of the loan to recapitalise the Spanish banks back in 2012. Following this payment, Spain’s outstanding debt to the ESM will become €38.2 bn.

Tokyo, March 4 2015 - Klaus Regling, Managing Director, ESM

Secular stagnation is a global concern. At the current juncture, all advanced economies - but also China - are facing very low or negative inflation rates. This is the case not only in the euro area, but also in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US), where central banks have more forcefully intervened and nominal growth is more robust.

Following this decision, €1.8 billion that is still available under the MFFA can be disbursed to Greece until 30 June 2015.

Luxembourg –The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) placed today a €1.5 billion 30-year bond maturing on 17 February 2045. The issuance spread was fixed at mid swap plus four basis points. This implies a reoffer yield for investors of 1.229%. The coupon rate is 1.2%.