In shorter maturities, money market spreads have narrowed even further. These positive developments are a consequence of the extensive provision of liquidity and other policy measures taken by the Eurosystem. Forward Euribor-EONIA swap spreads in the three-month maturity indicate that these spreads are expected to continue narrowing in the coming months.
Euro area government finances An important development in financial markets was the marked increase in the net issuance of euro area government debt securities at the end of 2008 and early 2009, as shown in Chart 8. New debt issuance has mainly been in the form of short-term debt, partly because the steeper yield curve has made short-term financing relatively cheaper.