With the €530bn lent to banks through its latest three-year longer-term refinancing operation, the size of the European Central Bank’s balance sheet has increased to unprecedented levels, raising three separate concerns. Not all are justified.
The first is that sooner or later the increase in central bank money will lead to inflation. However, there is no empirical evidence – across countries and over time – that the size of the central bank balance sheet in advanced economies is related to inflation. Even though inflation is ultimately a monetary phenomenon – to paraphrase Milton Friedman – the quantity of money circulating in the economy also depends on the motives underlying the demand for money by the private sector, in particular by the banking system. If the increase in central bank money helps commercial banks to finance additional private or public consumption and investment, over and above the economy’s productive potential, it may indeed fuel inflation. If, instead, the demand for central bank money reflects a change in the composition of financial market participants’ portfolios, towards less-risky assets, the increase in central bank money is not inflationary. It contributes instead to preventing deflation.
The data show that market participants’ current demand for central bank money does not reflect an intention to increase their balance sheets but rather their difficulty in accessing financial markets – the result of a generalised increase in risk aversion. Replacing market financing with central bank funding has prevented a sharp contraction in banks’ liabilities, which would have induced a drastic deleveraging and possibly a credit crunch. Money and credit statistics in the euro area confirm that there are no inflationary pressures, while aggregate demand growth is expected to be modest, if not negative; and below potential for some time.