The increasing net liabilities of some national central banks are a reflection mainly of funding stress in their individual banking systems, with financial outflows being compensated for by increased recourse to Eurosystem refinancing operations. (Slide 9) Our policy measures have, in particular, increased the ECB’s intermediation between banks.
We have some evidence from recent years that all or most of the decline in the saving rate is accounted for by the upper income quintile where the capital gains have disproportionately accrued, which suggests that the wealth effect has been real and significant.