Central banks

Firms’ perceived cost of green capital has decreased since the rise of sustainable investing. Green and brown firms perceived their cost of capital to be the same before 2016, but after the post-2016 surge in sustainable investing, green firms perceived their cost of capital to be on average 1 percentage point lower. This difference has widened as sustainable investing has intensified. Within some of the largest energy and utility firms, managers have started applying a lower cost of capital to greener divisions.

This box summarises the findings of recent contacts between ECB staff and representatives of 95 leading non-financial companies operating in the euro area. According to these exchanges, which took place between 16 and 26 September 2024, business momentum slowed somewhat over the summer, mainly as a result of declining confidence in the industrial sector, causing firms to scale back investment and focus on cost cutting. Meanwhile, the anticipated recovery in consumer spending was still rather patchy.

In line with the Bank’s transition to a repo-led, demand driven operational framework for providing reserves, which Indexed Long-Term Repo operations are central to, this Market Notice confirms that these operations will continue to be offered weekly on a permanent basis. There will be an accompanying change to the maturity date structure of Indexed Long-Term Repo operations to ensure alignment with their weekly frequency.

The change in macroeconomic conditions since the ECB’s strategy review in 2021 towards an environment characterised by above-target inflation, high interest rates, and renewed concerns about elevated government debt has been a vocal reminder of the intricate interdependencies between monetary and fiscal policies. Against this background, our paper reviews the literature on how central banks’ ability to maintain price stability is shaped by their interactions with fiscal policy and the state of the economy.