Let me also mention briefly the impact of the change of allotment procedure and increase of maturity on our open market operations volume. The outstanding amount of long-term refinancing operations, i.e. operations with a maturity of between 1 and 6 months, increased from € billion in June 2007 to over € billion at the end of 2008.
Over the same period the total amount of outstanding refinancing operations has almost doubled, peaking at € billion on 2 January 2009, and currently standing at € billion. The January 2009 figure represented more than 9% of euro area GDP.