By Emmanuel Cerclé, Hervé Le Bihan and Michaël Monot
Central banks' balance sheets have grown significantly, as a result of the "non-standard" monetary policies conducted in response to the 2008 crisis and the Covid-19 crisis. Reflecting the net asset purchase programmes in place, they are still expanding. However, over the longer term, their size could stabilise and then gradually decline once inflation has consistently returned to close to its target. Adjusting the size of their balance sheets should nevertheless remain in central banks' toolbox.
Chart1: Balance sheets of the Eurosystem, the FED and the BoJ (in amounts and as a % of GDP) Source: ECB, FED, BoJ, Eurostat Note: Top panel: amount in billions of euros (G€), dollars (G$), and yen (G¥). Bottom panel: as a % of GDP.