Securities issues by French residents 2021Q1

Published on 7 July 2021

Non-residents maintain their position on French long-term debt

  • In the first quarter of 2021, net issues of French debt securities reached €88 billion. General government issued €90 billion while banks repaid €8 billion.

  • Non-resident investors purchased €37 billion in resident debt securities. On the contrary, they reduced their position on quoted shares issued by residents for an amount of €2 billion.

  • At the end of March 2021, the share of non-residents in the holdings of long-term debt securities was stable at 54.7%. This share increased for securities issued by banks, and decreased for those issued by general government.
Graph 1 : Non-resident holdings of long-term debt (by resident issuer sector)
Graph 2 : Breakdown by holder sector of securities issued by residents (total debt and quoted shares) at end of march 2021
This document is prepared by the General Directorate of Statistics, Economics and International of the Banque de France (Balance of Payments Directorate). Issuance data is based on issuers' reporting, while holding statistics is calculated using custodian account statements. Further information on custodian activities : https://www.banque-france.fr/economie-et-statistiques/stats-info/detail/conservation-de-titres.html
"Long-term" stands for securities with an original maturity of more than one year.

Data reported in this document can be revised following quarterly and annual corrections and supplements.
Table 1 : SECURITIES ISSUES BY SECTOR AND SHARE OF NON-RESIDENTS IN THEIR SUBSCRIPTION
(Stocks and flows in billions of euros)
Gross stock Net issues Transactions flows by non-
residents
Net issues Transactions flows by non-
residents
March 2021 (end of month) Annual aggregate Q1 2021
TOTAL 6,968 418 167 93 36
DEBT SECURITIES (1) 4,485 399 144 88 37
Non-financial corporations 699 64 24 5 0
General government (4) 2,400 295 100 90 48
of which short-term issues (4 267 114 75 12 14
of which central government (4) 2,095 191 19 62 26
Banks (2) 1,184 27 18 -8 -2
of which guaranteed by restricted assets 280 -6 -6 -4 -2
of which short-term issues 199 -4 1 -8 -7
Non-monetary institutions (3) 202 13 2 1 -8
QUOTED SHARES (1) 2,483 19 24 5 -2
((1) The total outstanding amount of debt securities is expressed in nominal value. The total outstanding amount of equities is expressed in market value. Transaction flows are expressed in transaction value.
(2) Excluding internal financing operations of banking groups but including issues of financial companies (as defined in article L515-1, Code Monétaire et Financier).
(3) Non-monetary issuer institutions include insurance companies, securitization funds, debt funds, and investment firms.
(4) Total net and unconsolidated issuance (this measure cannot be compared with the overall outstanding amount of securities used for the calculation of national public debt as specified by the Maastricht criteria).
Table 2 : SECURITIES ISSUES BY FRENCH RESIDENTS IN THE EURO AREA
(nominal values, stocks and flows in billions of euros)
Gross stock (by euro area residents) French residents (as % of euro area gross stock) Cumulative gross issues over 4
quarters.
March 2021 (end of month)
Share of French residents in the
gross issues of euro area.
12 month moving aggregate flows
March 2021 (end of month) France Euro area March 2021 (end of month) March 2020 (end of month)
DEBT SECURITIES 19,299 23% 2,758 9,133 30% 28%
Non-financial corporations 1,568 45% 345 821 42% 46%
General government 9,891 24% 1,194 3,667 33% 37%
Banks 4,453 27% 1,072 3,080 35% 28%
of which short-term issues 485 41% 891 2,264 39% 29%
Non-monetary institutions 3,386 6% 147 1,564 9% 7%
Source and calculations : GENERAL DIRECTORATE OF STATISTICS, ECONOMICS AND INTERNATIONAL
More information on : methodology, time series, calendar
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STAT INFO - 1st quarter 2021
French securities issues and holdings
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Updated on 6 July 2021