The authorities in charge of the exercise have clarified that, unlike in the past, any capital guidance derived from the stress test outcomes does not in itself constitute a binding capital requirement to be met by a certain date. In any case, the risk that the exercise could trigger procyclical effects in a fragile macroeconomic environment is to be avoided.
Since 2009 until recently, bond flows predominated and non-resident ownership of the outstanding stock of bonds increased from around 12 per cent in 2007 to around 38 per cent currently. This change in the pattern of flows reinforced the downward pressure on long term bond yields.