[13] The sharp decline in flows to France towards the end of 2016 and early 2017 likely reflected political concerns. 8  BIS central bankers’ speeches  [14] See Altavilla, C., Carboni, G. and Motto, R. (2015), “Asset purchase programmes and financial markets: lessons from the euro area”, ECB Working Paper No. 1864.
[15] This is consistent with net short positioning against the euro between May 2014 and May 2017 in weekly data on commitments of traders collected by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). [16] See Deutsche Bundesbank (2017), “The Eurosystem’s bond purchases and the exchange rate of the euro”, Monthly Report, January.