The annual growth rate of debt securities issued by euro area residents was 7.0% in April 2004, compared with 7.1% in March. For quoted shares issued by euro area residents, the annual growth rate decreased from 1.6% in March 2004 to 1.0% in April.

Issuance of debt securities by euro area residents totalled EUR 640.5 billion in April 2004 (see Table 1 and Chart 1). As redemptions came to EUR 587.0 billion, net issues amounted to EUR 53.5 billion. The annual growth rate of debt securities issued by euro area residents (excluding valuation changes) was 7.0% in April 2004, compared with 7.1% in March (see Table 1 and Chart 2). As regards the sectoral breakdown, the annual growth rate of debt securities issued by non-financial corporations decreased from 3.8% in March 2004 to 2.5% in April (see Table 2 and Chart 3) .

For the monetary financial institutions sector, this growth rate increased from 7.3% in March 2004 to 7.7% in April. The annual growth rate of debt securities issued by non-monetary financial corporations decreased from 19.7% to 17.6% in the same period. For the general government, this growth rate was 5.6% in April 2004, the same as in March.

As regards the maturity breakdown, the annual growth rate of long-term debt securities was 7.7% in April 2004, the same as in March. For short-term debt securities, this growth rate decreased from 2.2% in March 2004 to 1.6% in April (see Table 1 and Chart 2).

Concerning the currency breakdown, the annual growth rate of euro-denominated debt securities decreased from 6.9% in March 2004 to 6.7% in April. For debt securities in other currencies, this growth rate increased from 9.6% in March 2004 to 10.8% in April (see Table 1).

Issuance of quoted shares by euro area residents totalled EUR 6.2 billion in April 2004 (see Table 3). As redemptions came to EUR 0.7 billion, net issues amounted to EUR 5.4 billion. The annual growth rate of quoted shares issued by euro area residents (excluding valuation changes) decreased from 1.6% in March 2004 to 1.0% in April (see Table 3 and Chart 4). The annual growth rate of quoted shares issued by non-financial corporations decreased from 1.3% in March 2004 to 0.7% in April. For monetary financial institutions, it was 2.2% in April 2004, compared with 2.1% in March.

For non-monetary financial corporations, this growth rate decreased from 3.2% in March 2004 to 1.4% in April.

The amount outstanding of quoted shares issued by euro area residents totalled EUR 3,748.3 billion at the end of April 2004. Compared with EUR 3,112.9 billion at the end of April 2003, this implies an annual increase of 20.4% in the value of the stock of quoted shares, down from 36.3% in March 2004 (see Table 3).

Securities issues statistics and explanations are made available on the Euro area securities issues statistics page in the ?Statistics? section on the ECB?s website www.ecb.int. The data can be downloaded as charts (pdf files) and as csv files and are updated monthly.

Download the Tables.