Eurozone Transactions from 2006 to 2012

I had previously calculated that transactions in the Eurozone in 2011 were around €1.6 quadrillion, and I provided a detailed breakdown country by country. With the latest numbers from the ECB I have compiled the numbers for "Securities Trading", "Securities Clearing" and "Securities Settlements" for 2006 through 2012.

But I thought it would be interesting to calculate the combined numbers by adding in transactions handled by TARGET, EURO 1, and the various other payments made by Credit Transfers, Direct Debits, Cheques, E-money and other payments methods. So, here they are for every year since 2006. All the figures come directly from the ECB's website. Note that since some of the numbers for 2012 aren't yet published, I've just used the numbers for 2011 - these are the figures shown in red.

You will note that the figure for 2011 was actually a bit more than the €1.6 quadillion I quoted earlier. That is because I had not included the EURO 1 system, which pushed up the total to €1.68 quadrillion.

The total for 2012 will be something like €1.58 quadrillion - somewhat down on 2011, but actually quite in line with previous years, matching the number for 2007.

All this means that the ECB could easily apply a small FTT on Eurozone financial transactions that could be used to prevent any inflationary tendency that might result from direct injections of new debt free money into the economy via citizens bank accounts.

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that this would be a great way to really get the economy moving.