The discussion on the necessity of a larger volume of very highly quality (VHQLA) and liquid asset in the euro area has been very extensive. The debate on expanding the pool of comparable euro area assets focuses on “safe assets”, often on various combinations of government bonds, most of...

The discussion on the necessity of a larger volume of very highly quality liquid assets (VHQLA) in the euro area has been very extensive. The debate on expanding the pool of comparable euro area assets focuses on "safe assets", often on various combinations of government bonds, most of which...

Special topic: Using fat survey data to nowcast euro area GDP growth. After losses in 2018-Q1 and a broad sideways movement in Q2, the euro-area (EA) and EU Economic Sentiment Indicators (ESI) posted moderate decreases of 0.9 (EU) and 1.4 (EA) points in the third quarter. In both cases, the...