Eurosytem financial assets grew by 5 percent per year since 2002 - ECB

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Assets held by euro zone central banks for purposes other than monetary policy have grown by an average 5 percent per year since the introduction of the euro, data from the European Central Bank showed on Friday.

The ECB published details about the Agreement on Net Financial Assets (ANFA) for the first time on Friday after an academic study published last year showed national central banks quietly bought hundreds of billions of euros worth of assets over the past decade using the facility.

The ECB data showed the Eurosystem’s aggregate net financial assets fell slightly last year to 490 billion euros ($545 billion) at the end of 2015.

They have grown by 5 percent per year on average since 2002, slower than the pace of banknotes in circulation.

To see the text of the ANFA agreement, please click:

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/legal/pdf/en_anfa_agreement_19nov2014_f_sign.pdf?208a41defab3909e542d83d497da43d2

(Reporting by Francesco Canepa; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)