This loss - before provision reversal - is the first recorded by the Frankfurt institution since 2004 and represents the third consecutive annual decline in the result, since the profit of 2.4 billion euros in 2019, according to a press release published Thursday. .
In the end, the ECB posted balanced accounts because it was able to absorb the loss thanks to provisions already made.
The aggressive rise in key rates initiated by the ECB since last summer to fight inflation has created two sources of losses for the main guardian of the euro.
The first is linked to the purchases of securities carried out by the ECB via the national central banks, which leads to the payment of interest to them.
This resulted in a charge of €2.1 billion for the ECB in 2022.
On the other hand, the ECB lowered the value of securities held, including portfolios in US dollars, by 1.84 billion euros due to the rise in bond yields.
These losses were partly offset by proceeds received on the stock of securities held under monetary policy programs, which earned more interest in 2022 than in the past.
The ECB also increased its receipts on foreign currency assets, thanks in particular to the rise in US yields.
After the puncture made in the financial cushions to balance the 2022 balance sheet, there remains 6.6 billion euros of provision on the ECB's balance sheet to cover the risk of future losses.
A cushion that could prove to be insufficient when these risks for all of the ECB's portfolios are estimated at the end of 2022 at 16 billion euros.
The ECB expects to “incur losses in the short to medium term, while anticipating a return to long-term profits,” its financial report said.
Like the ECB, the national central banks of the euro zone could post, for some of them, losses in 2022.
The ECB recalls, however, that these institutions are not "ordinary companies" and that they "can incur losses while continuing to operate efficiently" to fulfill their main mandate which is based on maintaining prices.
© 2023 AFP