OECD-IMF WORKSHOP

Real Estate Price Indexes

Paris, 6-7 November 2006

Paper 4

Residential property price statistics for the euro area and

selected EU countries

Martin Eiglsperger
(European Central Bank)
DIRECTORATE GENERAL STATISTICS
30 NOVEMBER 2006
EURO AREA ACCOUNTS AND ECONOMIC STATISTICS DIVISION
GENERAL ECONOMIC STATISTICS SECTION

RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY PRICE STATISTICS

FOR THE EURO AREA AND SELECTED EU COUNTRIES1

Martin Eiglsperger

European Central Bank

Since 2001, the ECB has gradually expanded its regular collection of non-harmonised residential
property price statistics from national sources in the EU, in co-operation with the EU National Central
Banks. The data are used both for country analyses and the monitoring of euro area wide developments.
The paper explains the main features of the national and euro area data, in particular its comparability,
frequency and timeliness. Progress for euro area data has been recently made by releasing semi-annual
estimates, and by expanding the availability of back data. Significant further improvements are desirable
and would require major improvements of residential property price statistics in EU countries. Work
towards improved statistics is underway, most prominently by national statistical institutes in the context
of the HICP pilot project on owner-occupied housing. Furthermore, the paper also refers to residential
property price data that have been collected recently from the new EU Member States.

1. Introduction

This paper deals with the residential property price indicators for the euro area and euro area countries
jointly collected and compiled by the ECB and the EU National Central Banks (NCBs) from various
national sources. Additionally, available dwelling price statistics for non-euro area EU countries have
been collected since early-2005. Furthermore, from 2001 on, the ECB has compiled an aggregate for the
euro area by weighting together changes in prices for houses and flats available for the euro area
countries. Since then, the statistical features of both the indicators for the countries and the euro area
aggregate have improved, but still remain below the standards of other economic statistics and price
indicators for the euro area.

Section 2 outlines the relevance of indicators on changes in residential property prices for the ECB. This
is followed by a presentation of the national sources used and the statistical features of the price statistics

1
This paper was prepared for the OECD-IMF Workshop “Real Estate Price Indexes” held on 6 and 7 November 2006 in Paris.
Input and comments by Adrian Page and Henning Ahnert (ECB) are gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed in this
paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Central Bank.

1
currently compiled for the euro area. Section 4 outlines the compilation of an aggregated euro area
indicator for residential property prices. Finally, future developments are outlined in section 5.

2. The role of residential property prices for ECB analyses

The buying or selling of a dwelling is typically the largest transaction a private household enters into.
Changes in residential property prices are therefore likely to influence substantially the budget plans and
saving decisions of the potential buyers and sellers. Changes in prices of houses and flats will also have
an impact on the wealth of owners of dwellings given that it is the largest asset in their portfolio.
According to estimates recently compiled by the ECB, euro area household housing wealth (net of capital
depreciation) increased by an annual average rate of more than 7% in the period from 1980 to 2003, and
the growth of house prices explains a significant part of this increase. Furthermore, housing wealth
accounts for almost 2/3 of total (gross) household wealth. 2

Houses and flats are also purchased as an investment, which creates returns in the form of rental
payments in the case of the dwelling being let. In this case, changes in house prices may impact on rents.
This is for the time being the main channel through which house price inflation may impact on the rates
of change of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) - the ECB’s measure to define price
stability in the euro area. The impact materialises via rents and not directly via house prices, since the
HICP covers rental payments by private households (weight in the euro area HICP: 6.3%), but excludes –
for the time being – expenditures by owner-occupiers for purchasing or using their own house or flat.
Housing price developments may also have an effect on residential construction investment. Finally,
housing prices can provide important insights for financial stability analysis, since sharp increases and
declines in prices can have a detrimental impact on financial sector health and soundness, by affecting
credit quality and the value of collateral.

Given these important uses of changes in dwelling prices, price indicators of good statistical quality are
required. Since the analysis of the ECB is usually focussed on euro area wide developments, an
aggregated residential property price indicator for the euro area is of particular importance. Due to the
divergent development of dwelling prices across euro area countries, results for individual euro area
countries are also essential. In addition, a distinction at national and at the euro area level dividing
between price developments in urban areas (and/or capital cities) and non-urban areas may be very
informative. For the prices for different housing types, the breakdown between new and existing
dwellings is the mostly used distinction.

As euro area statistics are compiled from national results, a meaningful euro area aggregate calls for a
sufficient degree of comparability between the national data. In order to be useful in the monitoring of
price developments, a quarterly frequency of the results is desirable. The degree to which residential

2
These estimates are expected to be discussed in a Box of the ECB Monthly Bulletin in December 2006. The estimates for
euro area housing wealth will be available from the website of the ECB.

2
property price indicators are able to eliminate the effect of quality differences between different dwellings
compared over time is crucial for analysing price changes.

For the time being, the collection and compilation of indicators for changes in residential property prices
primarily aim at providing insights into changes in transaction prices. Besides that, statistics on the value
of the housing stock can also contribute an important piece of information, e.g. for analysing wealth
effects. Additionally, price level data would allow the identification of differences between regions and
countries at a certain point in time. Finally, a comprehensive analysis of the real estate market should also
refer to units used for trade and commerce.

Price data are not the only statistics required for a comprehensive analysis of the housing market. The
share of rented and owner-occupied houses and flats, the number and value of transactions, statistics on
building permits, housing starts and completions provide important insights into the structure and the
dynamics of the market and their driving factors from the supply and the demand side. Therefore, the
ECB has also built up data sets on these statistics, calling them “structural indicators on housing”.

3. ECB dataset for euro area and selected EU countries: Statistical properties

3.1 Available data

The data set on residential property prices collected and compiled by the ECB and the NCBs of the
European System of Central Banks (ESCB) comprises indicators for all euro area countries and for eleven
non-euro area EU countries. For the time being, only for Cyprus and Slovenia are data on changes in
house prices are lacking in the European Union. The available country results are shown in charts 1 and 2.
An overview table of the development of residential property prices in euro area countries is shown in the
annex.

Chart 1: Residential property prices for euro area countries, annual percentage changes

Belgium Germany Greece Spain France Ireland Luxembourg

20 30
25
15
20
10 15
10
5 5
0
0
-5
-5 -10
1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004

3
 Netherlands Austria Portugal Finland
40
30
20
10
0
-10
-20
1982 1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 2000 2003

Sources: National data and ECB calculations. Due to confidentiality reasons data for Italy are not shown.

Chart 2: Residential property prices for non-euro area EU countries, annual percentage changes

Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Hungary Malta Slovakia Sweden UK

Latvia Lithuania 40
60
30
50
40 20
30 10
20
0
10
0 -10
-10 -20
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 2002 2005

Sources: National data and ECB calculations. For Denmark, annual percentage changes are available from 1972 on. Data for
Poland are not shown due to experimental character of the underlying indicator.

These data have been collected by NCBs and the ECB from various sources. As alternative indicators
from different sources exist in several countries, NCBs and the ECB have typically chosen the indicator
that corresponds best to the “target definitions” and other criteria (frequency, timeliness, quality
adjustment) that have been agreed upon by the European System of Central Banks (see section 3.10).
Nevertheless, in order to understand and interpret these non-harmonised data it is essential to take into
account their very heterogeneous statistical features and quality. These differences, which concern
presentational aspects like frequency and timeliness and, especially important for the interpretation of the
results, the coverage and method of the calculations, are presented in the following sections.

3.2 Data sources

For the time being, only four national statistical institutes (NSIs) in the euro area produce statistics on
national residential property prices (Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Finland), whereas seven out of
thirteen NSIs of the non-euro area EU countries compile data on house prices (Czech Republic, Denmark,
Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, Poland, Sweden). Other governmental sources are ministries, which compile
dwelling price statistics in Spain, France and Ireland. In the Netherlands residential property price
indicators are derived from the database of the Land Registry Office (“Kadaster”). Taxation register data
are used in Finland. In four countries the available data are compiled by the respective national central

4
bank. For their calculations the central banks in Germany, Greece, Italy and Slovakia use data provided
by real estate agencies or collected by research and consultancy institutes. In Belgium, the consultancy
institute STADIM publishes a house price indicator, which is used by the Belgian NCB, e.g. in their
Financial Stability Review. The Portuguese NCB started monitoring the valuations by private banks as a
new source of information about changes in residential property prices, after the compilation of the
former indicator price based on information from real estate agencies had been discontinued. In Austria,
the NCB co-operates with the Institute of Technology at Vienna University in compiling dwelling price
indices for Austria. Further sources are mortgage banks (Ireland, UK).

3.3 Periodicity

Monthly statistics are available from Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK, quarterly data from Belgium,
the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Lithuania, Austria, Finland and Sweden.
Data from Italy are reported in semi-annual frequency, whereas for Germany, Luxemburg, Poland and
Slovakia only annual information is available. Data on changes in dwelling prices published at a lower
than quarterly frequency usually do not satisfy the ECBs requirements for short-term economic analysis.
However, it has to be taken into account that in particular for smaller countries and statistics with a
smaller coverage, higher periodicity of the data implies fewer covered transactions and this may reduce
the representativity of higher frequency results and increase their volatility.

3.4 Period covered

For euro area countries, the original data have - with a few exceptions - a sufficient series length for
economic analysis, i.e. 10 years or more in terms of index levels. For non-euro-area EU member states,
the longest time series are available for Denmark, starting in 1971. Indicators from Sweden and the UK
both cover 15 years. For the eastern European EU member states, time series for Hungary, Latvia, Poland
and Slovakia are short, i.e. cover less than five years. However, it should be noted that long time series
covering several decades often requires the linking of data sources that may differ in definition and
coverage. Therefore, international comparisons of non-harmonised national sources have to take into
account that the quality of the data usually lower for periods before the 1990s. 3

3.5 Timeliness

The timeliness of the available data differs considerably. The earliest available figures are the monthly
data from Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK, for which data become available between one month and
two months after the reporting period. Most other data are provided in a time span of two to eight months
after the reporting period. For Luxembourg, the annual price indicator becomes only available about 1.5
years after the end of the reporting year. The timeliness of the data varies also among alternative country

3
In several cases it has not been possible to identify the sources of the national data that are used in published long-term
studies on residential property prices. As a result of lacking metadata and the existence of various alternative non-official
sources for residential property prices, the estimates used for long-term international comparisons may differ significantly.

5
indicators. It should be noted that timeliness should not be considered separately, but in connection with
the frequency of the data.

3.6 Coverage

Most of the data sources refer to a certain segment of the housing market. Most important are limitations
in the geographical coverage and the coverage by dwelling type, since price changes in these sub-markets
are in most cases not representative for the whole housing market. The quarterly price index for France
and the monthly indicators for the Netherlands, for example, cover only existing dwellings.

In most cases, the intrinsic characteristics of the data source imply that only a segment of the market is
covered, since the databases are collections of the purchases financed by a certain mortgage bank or cover
the transactions of real estate agencies in which they are involved. Other limitations in coverage are due
to the sampling design, i.e. the definition of the objects and the geographical areas for which prices are
observed over time.

For the interpretation of the results it is decisive whether the covered share of housing purchases is
representative for all market transactions. Geographical limitations to the capital city are unlikely to be
representative for the country wide price development. The exclusion of new dwellings might also have a
systematic effect on the results. To which extent the limitations to certain quality categories or the
restriction to purchased financed by mortgage banks affects the results is not obvious and may vary over
time.

3.7 Prices

Transaction prices are typically available to mortgage banks, notaries, land registry offices and tax
authorities. Some of the other sources are based on price data of different types: In Spain, e.g. the
valuation of dwellings serves as a basis for calculating property values (“open-market appraised
housing”). For Germany, the data source used by the NCB comprises typical values quantified by real
estate experts who refer to price data of various types, including also non-transaction prices. The Austrian
price index makes use of offer prices, provided on an internet platform of real estate agencies. For the
non-euro area EU member states, the index of Malta is an example of an indicator which is based on offer
prices, i.e. asking prices advertised in newspapers. Given that the transaction price of houses and flats is
usually fixed in a bargaining process, the price changes of offer prices might not always properly reflect
the dynamics of transaction prices.

3.8 Quality adjustment and sampling

Measuring the “pure” price change means to quantify the price development over time for goods or
services keeping their product characteristics constant (“matched models”). Whenever a product’s quality
changes over time, the impact of this change on the price development has to be excluded. However, it is
not possible to follow this conceptual idea for dwelling price statistics for two main reasons: In the first
place, no two dwellings are identical and even standardised terraced houses or apartments differ in

6
important details like location and equipment. Secondly, even if a sample of houses and flats could be
designed, so that the physical attributes are almost constant over time, too few of them may be sold in a
certain period, thereby making the calculation of reliable high frequency data difficult. Additionally, the
location and the size of the land might vary across sampled houses.

The simplest way to form a dwelling price indicator is to calculate average prices, i.e. the arithmetic mean
or the median of recorded price data. However, such indicators do not take into account that the price-
determining characteristics of the houses and flats entering the sample at different points in time are
usually different. Therefore, the reliability of an average-price measure depends on the way it is
controlled for changes in the composition of the sample. A detailed specification of the dwelling’s
physical attributes and the location sets tight limits to changes in the composition and may therefore allow
the identification of pure price changes, whereas average prices of broader defined categories may be
influenced by non-price factors and their changes. However, the tighter the specification of the categories
is, the less transactions per category can normally be recorded. Hence, there is a trade-off between the
accuracy of measuring pure price changes on the one hand, and the representativity of the underlying
information on the other. In practice, prices are collected for typical houses and flats usually defined on
the basis of more general criteria like “good quality”, “good location” or “medium size”. Others refer to
certain, more broadly specified dwelling types like single-family houses, terraced houses or medium sized
flats. Combining quality and location assessments and house types can help to come closer to a true price
index.

Most of the EU countries have applied the average-price concept for compiling the indicators. However,
the criteria used for defining the categories and the typical units can vary greatly across indicators.
Information about the physical attributes of a house or flat and its location can also be used for applying a
hedonic regression in order to calculate a true quality-adjusted price index. Generally, hedonic regression
analysis of house prices usually requires a broad and detailed set of data about housing characteristics.
Usually, hedonic house price indices are calculated for geographical regions, taking into account the
importance of regional differences. The NSIs in France and Finland calculate the overall index for the
whole country by weighting together the regional results. Alternatively, the hedonic price index for the
total market can be calculated independently from the geographical breakdowns. This type of hedonic
price indices is available for Ireland and the UK.

For the Netherlands, the data of the Land Registry Office are used to compile a so-called “repeat sales”-
index. By comparing purchase prices for the same dwelling over different points in time, a “repeat sales”-
index aims at controlling for differences in the physical attributes and the location. However, the overall
condition of a house or flat might have deteriorated between to sales; the location might have become
more attractive, e.g. due to a better connection to public transport. Additionally, since only prices for
dwellings are taken into account which are sold more than once, this might not be representative for the
whole housing market.

7
3.9 Aggregation

Aggregating price data by simply averaging the dwelling prices collected in a certain period forms a unit-
value index. Various types of such unit-value indices exist in practice, calculated for well-defined and
homogeneous segments of the housing markets, but also for total indicators of the whole country, e.g. for
Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Although no explicit weighting structure is applied for unit-value
indices, an implicit weighting materialises by the number of transactions, valuations, offers etc. for which
prices have been sampled the concurrent period. Besides the lack of quality adjustment, another drawback
of a simple average indicator is, that the variation of its implicit weighting structure can create a certain
amount of volatility in the time series, since the number of transactions may vary substantially over time.

For aggregating indicators broken down by regions, by house types or by quality categories different
weights can be used. Applying weights based on housing stock data usually implies a high degree of
stability, so that the indicator’s variation over time is almost entirely driven by the changes in prices. If
reliable information about the housing stock is not available, it is common practice to use population
weights as a proxy. However, for certain purposes, weights which reflect the structure of transactions
might be more useful than a stock-related weighting scheme, e.g. in order to fully reflect the dynamics of
the current market conditions. A way to limit the volatility stemming from concurrent transaction value
weights is to apply a fixed weighting structure, which reflects, e.g., the average number of purchases over
several years. However, this might imply that in periods in which only a few houses are purchased in a
certain segment of the market, the price changes might still get a high weight in the overall index
resulting from former periods’ high transaction values or volumes.

The dwelling price indices for Germany are compiled by using population weights for aggregating
average prices for the cities. The indicators for Greece and Italy use the size of dwellings in the housing
stock for weighting. For Spain, price data are weighted together on the basis of the number of valuations,
whereas the French NSI aggregates its sub-indices for geographical areas by applying the share of the
sales value in the index base period.

Generally, the question whether, for certain purposes, a time-varying weighting structure might be
preferable to a weighting scheme held constant over several years has not yet been intensively discussed
for dwelling price indicators. This might be a consequence of the fact that housing-stock related data are
usually fairly stable over time, given the much larger number of existing houses and flats compared to
newly built units. Hence, the application of fixed weights might be considered the most straightforward
way of compiling an index with stock-related weights. Regarding weights which are supposed to reflect
the structure of transactions, their potential volatility is usually considered a non-desirable property.
Additionally, in practice, the lack of up-to date information on housing stock and transaction values
usually does not allow a high frequency of updating the weights used for residential property price
indices.

8
3.10 Specification and compilation of headline indicators for euro area countries

Since for some of the euro area countries more than one source exists, the ECB specified headline
indicators for each of the euro area countries. The following criteria have been applied for selection the
country’s headline indicator to be used for compiling the euro area aggregate:

1. Coverage: should be broad, if possible, similar with other euro area countries.

2. Periodicity: subject to satisfactory coverage, the higher frequent source has been selected.

3. Timeliness: subject to satisfactory coverage and periodicity, the source has been selected which
shows the best timeliness.

The headline indicators identified for Germany, Ireland, Italy and Austria do not cover the whole national
market. However, the segments for which these indicators are compiled do not overlap and represent the
major part or almost the entire market, e.g. by providing separate indicators for new and existing
dwellings. Therefore, the ECB compiles an overall indicator for each of these countries by weighting
together available data covering disjunctive parts of the markets, using reasonable assumptions about the
weights (e.g. assuming shares of 75% for existing dwellings and 25% for new dwellings).

3.11 General assessment of the available date

In general, the data set used by the ECB can give useful information on the trend of the prices for
transactions of the residential housing stock in the euro area and EU countries. The data can partially fill a
gap in the provision of statistics by official sources. However, the available statistics for each individual
country are, though with varying degree, only rough approximations of an accurate and representative
statistical measure of actual changes in prices on the housing market. Moreover, most of the available
data refer only to a certain segment of the national market, which is not necessarily representative for the
national housing market. Additionally, the methodological differences between the national approxima-
tions are significant with the consequence that differences in price developments between countries do
not necessarily reflect actual differences in dwelling price inflation, but may be caused by statistical
factors, as for example the coverage. This is a common characteristic of all non-harmonised data and
limits its usefulness for cross-country comparison or euro area aggregation. However, it has to be stressed
that the statistical differences between national dwelling price statistics are much more significant than
differences between most other non-harmonised national data used for economic analysis.

4. Compilation of a euro area residential property price indicator

An aggregated euro area residential property price indicator is calculated by the ECB as an arithmetic
average of the rates of change of the available national price indicators. Weights are derived from GDP
data, mainly due to availability and comparability of these data across EU countries. Data on transactions
or housing stock which would provide more specific information about the structure of the housing
market are not available for several countries. Additionally, the statistical definitions, concepts and

9
methods used for compiling statistics on the numbers of houses, flats and apartments are not harmonised.
In order to get quantitative insights in the impact of alternative weighting schemes, the ECB conducted
test calculations, for which existing data gaps were filled by referring to the best approximation. 4 The
results demonstrated that the general price trend was not affected by the choice of the weights.

The headline euro indicator is calculated at annual and semi-annual frequency (see chart 3). As the data
for Germany and Luxembourg are only available at annual frequency, semi-annual estimates are
calculated for these countries by interpolating the respective annual series. It is currently not possible to
compile quarterly or even monthly indicators, since in addition to Germany and Luxembourg also Italy
would not be covered by such an indicator.

Chart 3: Residential property prices for the euro area at annual and semi-annual frequency,
annual percentage changes

annual series semi-annual series

14 10
12 8
10
6
8
6 4

4 2
2 0
0 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 H1 H1 H1 H1 H1 H1 H1 H1 H1 H1

Source: ECB calculations, based on national data.

The euro area aggregates are calculated only when more than 80% of the euro area country coverage is
achieved. In the first step, the euro area aggregate is compiled at semi-annual frequency, using
interpolated data for Germany and Luxembourg. Country values which are not available at the most
recent end of the respective series are replaced by the latest reported figures (“carry-forward”). In the
second step, the annual series is then converted from the semi-annual euro area aggregate.

Breakdowns are available for new dwellings, existing dwellings and large urban areas, each with annual
frequency. In order to reach a sufficiently high coverage for aggregates on new or existing dwellings,
country data not available for the requested segment have been approximated by price series for existing,
total or new dwellings, respectively. Thus, euro area series on new, existing and total dwellings are not
fully consistent.

A long time series for the euro area has been compiled, closing gaps in the back data for the bigger euro
area countries by referring to data for which the statistical quality is lower compared to the headline
indicator, but sufficient for building up a back extended euro area aggregate.

4
See the box entitled “Availability of key non-financial housing market indicators”, in the February 2005 issue of the ECB
Monthly Bulletin, p. 57.

10
5. Outlook

The two highest priorities for improving EU national and euro area residential property price statistics
are, first, work towards a set of quarterly results for all countries and, second, work towards more
comparable coverage and methods. Quarterly results would also help to significantly improve the low
timeliness of the current semi-annual euro area estimates. The ECB and national central banks will
continue to jointly develop the common dataset on residential property price statistics used by the ESCB.
Several minor and major improvements have been achieved over the recent years. However, the fact that
most NCBs are not directly involved in the collection of residential property price information limits the
further improvements that can be achieved.

The most promising EU-wide project that may contribute to the improvement of EU residential property
prices is Eurostat’s pilot group on estimating expenditures for owner-occupied housing for the
Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices. In this context, experimental dwelling price indices are to be
compiled. The ECB has expressed its strong interest in such indices, since these data would be an
important step towards higher quality and more harmonised house price indices.

11
Annex: Overview table of residential property prices in euro area countries, annual percentage changes

Annual Percentage Changes

Euro area Belgium Germany Greece Spain France Ireland Italy# Luxembourg Netherlands Austria Portugal Finland
1982 3.5 0.4 18.3
1983 6.4 -7.1 19.6
1984 1.7 9.4 11.9
1985 2.0 7.2 4.7
1986 3.9 13.7 4.0
1987 8.1 6.6 11.2
1988 10.0 14.2 12.8 34.7
1989 12.3 14.0 9.2 14.2 17.0 17.0 22.5
1990 11.7 9.4 13.3 12.2 24.9 11.2 -5.5
1991 8.0 3.0 4.5 2.2 14.7 19.3 11.3 -13.9
1992 5.5 8.4 6.3 2.7 5.8 15.7 10.2 -17.1
1993 2.6 6.1 4.9 1.6 0.7 0.3 2.1 -8.7
1994 2.0 6.8 3.9 4.7 1.3 12.3 0.6 3.0 5.9
1995 1.4 4.3 0.7 7.9 6.5 3.2 7.8 -1.0 3.4 -3.6
1996 2.0 6.1 -1.2 9.9 1.4 14.1 7.8 11.6 0.4 2.1 5.5
1997 2.1 4.4 -2.0 8.2 2.8 0.1 19.3 2.3 12.3 0.8 4.8 17.5
1998 2.4 6.7 -1.0 14.4 5.8 1.9 28.5 3.8 11.7 -5.0 3.9 10.2
1999 4.6 8.7 0.8 8.9 7.7 7.1 21.0 7.9 16.2 -1.9 7.9 8.9
2000 5.7 7.1 0.3 10.6 8.6 8.8 15.7 8.2 16.4 -1.2 6.5 6.0
2001 5.7 6.7 0.2 14.4 9.9 7.9 8.1 13.8 11.2 2.1 3.6 0.7
2002 6.9 7.7 -1.2 13.9 15.7 8.3 10.1 11.7 8.5 0.2 1.1 6.1
2003 6.9 6.1 -1.3 5.4 17.6 11.7 15.2 12.9 4.9 0.3 1.6 6.3
2004 7.2 10.7 -1.5 2.2 17.4 15.2 11.4 10.0 4.2 -2.1 0.4 7.3
2005 7.6 17.6 -1.6 13.9 15.3 11.5 4.8 5.1 6.1

Footnote: # Due to confidentiality reasons data for Italy are not shown.

Source: NCBs and ECB calculations.

12