Signs of turnaround in international use of euro ECB

(MENAFN- AFP) The eurozone attracted more foreign investment in 2013 than in 2012, but the euro's share of foreign exchange reserves and its role in international financing declined slightly, the European Central Bank said on Wednesday.

According to the ECB's annual report on the international role of the euro, market sentiment towards the euro area is improving as the long crisis faded.

"Various indicators used to assess the international use of the euro turned to or remained in positive territory in 2013," it found.

In particular, international investors' interest in euro area securities, which are mostly denominated in euro, grew markedly over the course of the year, the report said.

Specifically, foreign demand for euro area debt securities and equities "reached its strongest level since the onset of the financial crisis in 2007, amounting to 3.7 percent of area-wide gross domestic product (GDP), compared with 3.0 percent in 2012," it said.

"These capital inflows reflected both domestic and external factors, including improving euro area macro-economic fundamentals, a further reduction in perceived tail risks, and a rebalancing of international investors away from emerging market securities," the ECB explained.

Other indicators of the international use of the euro "turned to or remained in positive territory in 2013," the report continued.

For example, foreign demand for euro banknotes increased for a third consecutive year and the sovereign debt crisis had no impact on the use of the euro as parallel currency in central, eastern and south-eastern Europe.

At the same time, the euro's share in global foreign exchange reserves decreased by 0.9 percentage point to 24.4 percent in 2013, the ECB said.

And in the international debt markets, the share of the euro as an international financing currency declined by 1.4 percentage points to 25.3 percent.