As the Governing Council of the ECB took a decision at the beginning of 2016 to expand its nonstandard monetary policy measures – I am thinking here specifically of the increase in monthly purchases under the APP from € billion to € billion – the balance sheet grew even more quickly during the past year than it did in 2015.
The decision taken in December last year to extend the duration of the programme up to the end of 2017 with a purchase volume then reduced again to € billion from April 2017 and the buying of securities with yields lower than the deposit facility rate will also have an impact on our balance sheet ‒ something which we are already having to take into account.